


Cruelty Has a Human Heart

by Lisa_Lisa



Series: Blood is Thicker than Water [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: (but sadly not between Nero and V yet), And V doesn't deal well with that, Angst, Angst and Feels, Arguing, Awkwardness, Banter, Bathtubs, Battle Scenes, Blood and Injury, Blow Jobs, Bonding, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Caring, Dancing, Denial of Feelings, Drinking Games, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, F/M tag is for Nero/Kyrie, Feelings, Fights, First Time, Flirting, Fluff and Smut, Getting Together, Hate to Love, Heartache, Incest, Injury, Jealousy, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Making Out, Misunderstandings, Nero and Vergil will have a Happy Ending in a Second Part, Nero is a bit too reckless, Nightmares, One chapter/One day, Original Character Death(s), POV Alternating, Past Brainwashing, Possessive Behavior, Rating May Change, Reconciliation, Relationship Discussions, Repressed Memories, Resolved Sexual Tension, Revelations, Riding, Rimming, Rough Sex, Seduction, Self-Acceptance, Slow Burn, Spoilers, Switching, Teasing, bottom&top!Nero, bottom&top!V, breaking up, though they will obviously break up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2020-05-14 09:36:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 206,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19270597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Lisa/pseuds/Lisa_Lisa
Summary: The first encounter with Urizen makes Nero embarrassingly aware of his lack of strength, while V realizes that fulfilling his mission won’t be as easy as he thought.Having the common goal of defeating the so-called Demon King, they both decide to join forces and work hard to be ready for their next encounter in a month. But when unexpected feelings begin to arise, they discover that dealing with Urizen may be the last of their worries.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saya_Flourite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saya_Flourite/gifts).



> Me: I better not post this until having my other DMC fic more advanced.  
> Also me: FUCK IT. I can’t wait anymore.
> 
> The second ‘me’ won ^^U
> 
> So, as the summary says, this fic is the first part of a series, and it will take place during the ‘missing month’ between the Prologue of DMC5 and the Mission 1 of the game. My intention is to follow the canon as much as possible (with the exception of the added romance of course xD) and also cover the events of the game in a second part, which means that the fic is probably going to be long and a surely slow burn, because that’s what it usually happens with my stories xDD
> 
> Also, the rating of the fic begins with T but it will be raised later on, so keep a look at the tags and the rating as the story advances ;)
> 
> Special thanks to Saya who (heatedly) encouraged me to write this <3 <3 :P

_**May 16 - 8:06 p.m**._

“What I’m doin’, wasting my time here? He’s got this.”

When Morrison had called him a couple of hours ago asking him to offer support to Dante in his last job, Nero had honestly expected more action. Instead, he had ended in a grim cave oozing with the familiar odor of minor demons hiding to pathetically try to catch him out of guard, while watching in the distance the explosions and attacks result of the Devil Hunter’s intense battle, which apparently he had under control.

Definitely, it wasn’t the night he had expected to have...

“You should not underestimate this demon.”

...and neither the company, he thought with resignation as that weird guy that called himself ‘V’ approached him until remaining a couple of steps ahead.

Morrison had introduced the strange man to him mere 20 minutes ago as ‘Dante’s client’ without giving any more details, probably because he didn’t even have them. V hadn’t looked too willing to provide more information about himself either, contenting himself with examining Nero from head to toe with a critic expression before proceeding inside with an unreadable smile in his face, which caused Nero to frown with annoyance for having being so obviously evaluated, as if that guy who looked way weaker than him was doubting his abilities.

“After all, it was he who took your right arm...”, V continued, apparently unaware of Nero’s not very positive thoughts about him, “...and gained a great deal of power from it.”

Nero’s jaw tensed. He didn’t like V’s choice of words that made him look pretty useless but he was unable to deny them, since that was exactly what had happened a couple of weeks ago, and even if his arm (or better said, what remained of it) was practically healed, his pride wasn’t.

“I’m leaving”, V announced, summoning some kind of shadow under his feet while Nero thought about the man’s words, “I suggest you do not fall behind.”

“Yeah…”

Nero observed V go ahead, being transported by the recently invoked shadow while that annoying bird, Griffon, followed him. He didn’t move for a moment, thinking about what his next move would be, but it didn’t take much to take his decision.

“Okay, V…”, he said when he was sure the invoker couldn’t hear him, “you’re an interesting guy, but you’re right. I’ve got a score to settle with that son of a bitch.”

He didn’t have the least trouble in keeping advancing, since there were only empusas wandering around and they were way too easy to kill. He came across V at some point. The man stayed behind with Griffon to take care of the remaining enemies while Nero continued towards the area where Dante’s battle was taking place. After jumping down to a lower level Nero finally arrived at a vertical crack in the cave, through which he entered ready to demand Dante to let him take care of the rest, since the old man had had enough fun already leaving him none.

The sight that welcomed him was far from the one he had been expecting, and he observed with a confused frown the fainted figures of Lady and Trish on the ground, while Dante struggled to stand up.

Nero’s attention finally focused on the rather impressive demon sitting on the throne, with an aura that exuded authority and the confidence of being above everyone else. In fact, the roots that covered the demon’s body as an armor reached the top of his head, interlacing together until forming some kind of crown, which just made Nero’s temptation of defy that ‘king’ even more.

At that moment, a spiked tendril emerged from the demon before rapidly moving towards Dante, with the clear intention of provoking a mortal wound making the most of the man’s vulnerable state. Nero didn’t hesitate and extracted his weapon to deliver a perfect shot at it, stopping its lethal advance.

“Well...Looks like this won’t be a total waste of time after all”, he turned towards the demon, talking with his usual nonchalance, “Hey, jackass! Did you mother ever teach you it’s not nice to steal?”

The demon didn’t bother to answer and Nero snorted, detecting his condescendence from where he was standing, his determination for kicking that bastard’s ass being even bigger than before.

“Sorry, Dante”, Nero unsheathed his word, rotated in the air a couple of times and dug it on the ground before activating it, “I’m bagging’ this bitch!”

But the so-called ‘bitch’ was as tough as it looked, and Nero was pretty sure he had broken a couple of ribs at least when, merely a couple of minutes later, the demon threw him effortlessly towards the other side of the room with outstanding force, making him roll on the floor a couple of meters before stopping, groaning in pain. His previous cockiness had almost vanished completely after having attacked that demon with all he had without managing to make him the slight scratch, but his anger for being so impotent had multiplied and it was what made him ignore the pain he was feeling in practically all the muscles of his body to face that asshole once again.

He was still struggling to stand up when V arrived in a run, his expression not as serene as before while looking at his surroundings, and specially at the immobile demon sitting in the throne looking completely unbothered by the recent attacks, as if he had just been slightly disturbed by flies that couldn’t cause any insignificant damage.

“This is it, this is the end! It’s all over!”

Nero heard Griffon caw hysterically, missing the side glance V threw at him with an uncharacteristic worried expression, and also the way the demon raised his right arm lazily in order to throw a new fireball towards their direction.

This time, the shots that sounded didn’t come from his pistol, but from Dante’s legendary Ebony and Ivory.

“Round two!”

Dante breathed out, Nero’s too brief ‘fight’ having allowed him to recover enough to activate his Devil Trigger. However, even in that form his attack was futile because the demon was able to stop it by merely extending his arm, causing Dante to look at V and Nero before talking with an urgency Nero had never heard him use.

“V, get Nero out of here! This was a bad move!”

Despite the rather critic situation they were facing, the only feeling that Nero felt at the moment was irritation when hearing Dante ask V to take care of him as if he was a fucking little kid in need of protection.

“I can still fight!”, Nero spat, but his body didn’t obey him as he wanted and he was about to fall forward.

“Nero, go! You’re just deadweight.”

This time Nero felt his blood boil when hearing that appellative. He felt V’s hand on his shoulder, trying to fulfill Dante’s petition, so he pushed it away.

“Back off!”

At that moment the place began to fall apart due to the massive force of Dante and the demon’s attacks crashing together, and if Nero hadn’t been too busy trying to join Dante despite the man’s warning, he would have noticed that V had probably saved him from dying buried under the multiple rocks that began to fall onto the ground when the invoker pulled him back.

“Come on!”, V urged, helping him stand.

“Let go!”, Nero couldn’t believe that a man as thin as V was managing to outmatch him in strength at the moment.

“We must leave here. He is far stronger than we ever could have imagined.”

V dragged Nero back with him, away from the battle while everything around them kept crumbling.

“That bastard called me dead weight!”, Nero snarled, full of fury but also worry, “I didn’t come all this way for nothing!”

Using his last ounces of strength, he tried to come back to face that apparently unbeatable asshole, despite the road was completely blocked by then, and once again V dragged him back, this time pinning him against the nearest wall with his cane with surprising force.

“Stop hitting yourself, and think of ways to get stronger and actually help”, V exhaled with a breathless voice for having been forced to fight against Nero’s stubbornness, “if Dante loses...you are all that can defeat Urizen.”

Breathing heavily too Nero looked towards the others, catching a glimpse of Dante still fighting... _losing_ against that Urizen bastard.

“Is that what you call him?”

“Yes. Urizen, the demon king…”, V looked at Nero again, “that’s the name of the demon that took your arm.”

* * *

“What happened to Dante? Where’s Dante?”

Since Nero kept walking ignoring Morrison, it was V the one who answered the old man’s confused questions.

“He’s buying time, but...it doesn’t look good.”

V observed next to Morrison how tendrils similar to the ones Urizen had thrown at Dante emerged from the ground, beginning to attack the innocent bystanders who began to run away in fear.

“This can’t be happening...Dante lost?”

Nero had apparently decided to be unreasonable once again and made a last attempt of coming back, just to be stopped by V’s cane once again.

“Forget it, there’s nothing we can do. We must go.”

This time for real Nero abandoned the scene, bumping Morrison with his shoulder brusquely without even noticing.

V walked next to the worried man for some minutes, none of them trying to catch up with Nero who obviously wanted to be left alone, but eventually excused himself, agreeing on passing by _Devil May Cry_ the following day in order to discuss what the next steps would be.

He continued walking through the alleys with a calm cadency, lost in his thoughts with the shouts and cries of the people who were abandoning the surroundings of Urizen’s den as a background. Several sirens began to sound in the distance, announcing the arrival of the police in order to seal the area and try to contain the catastrophe. He was wondering how many of those officers would die in the process when part of his tattoos dissolved in the air and Griffon appeared next to him, uncalled as usual.

“Hey hey, V, how can you be so damn calm!?”, V wasn’t the least surprised when the familiar began to squawk hysterically, “our plan of Dante defeating Urizen was a big failure! What the hell we’re going to do now?!”

V sighed, making the most of the empty street to summon Shadow in order to travel faster to the old abandoned theatre that had become his temporary headquarters.

“It seems we underestimated Urizen’s power.”

“ _It seems_?!”, Griffon repeated, losing some feathers for the rapid way he began to flap next to V, “we obviously did it! He swept the floor with Dante as if he was nothing! It’s all lost.”

V remained silent for some seconds, tapping with his thumb the top of his cane before talking again, more to himself than to Griffon.

“No, it is not. We still have _him._ ”

Griffon didn’t need a human face to show what he thought about V’s comment.

“You mean the kid?”

“Yes. Nero”, V continued, purposely ignoring the bird’s deadpan tone.

“You mean that kid that only shouted and shouted without doing anything useful?”

“Well, it is undeniable his presence did not suppose much of a difference in the battle outcome.”

“No, it didn’t. It’s more: he almost gets us killed more than once.”

V had to suppress the impulse of rolling his eyes, remembering how much it has costed him to stop Nero from practically committing suicide by trying to face Urizen in his current state. Definitely, it was rather inconvenient not to have a stronger body to deal with Nero’s impulsive youth. He guessed Vergil hadn’t had much to say in the matter, or he would have surely chosen a better vessel for his human part. Although thinking about it, his humanity was precisely the part he had wanted to discard the most, so probably for him the fact that V’s body was weaker than it should had been rather irrelevant to him.

“That is probably true. But even if Nero is quite…”

“...annoying?”

“I was planning to say stubborn”, V raised his left hand softly, in order to make Griffon remain silent and not to keep adding insults addressed to Nero, “...but he has potential. And as reckless as he was when trying to fight a battle that obviously he couldn’t win, he didn’t show fear, neither he thought about giving up. So even if it may take some time to… _polish_ him and teach him when he has to actually retreat not to be unnecessarily killed, he can be useful for our purposes.”

Griffon huffed, not very convinced.

“It's going to take A LOT of work."

V sigued with resignation.

That, he could not deny it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this first chapter is practically an entire transcription of the Prologue but from here on the original story will begin until we reach the canon :P Hope you have liked it nevertheless ^^


	2. (May 17) - The offer

_**May 17 - 7:12 a.m**._

Nero woke up from his nightmare sitting up violently in bed, his forehead and naked upper body covered in sweat, his breathing agitated. As it usually happened when he had too vivid dreams, specially of the bad kind, it took him a moment to realize that he was in one of the upper rooms of Devil May Cry office, that he wasn’t back in the garage, and that that bastard hadn’t decided to continue from where he left off, by piercing his stomach with a sword that had somehow appeared from his severed arm to finish him off.

However, Nero didn’t let out a relieved sigh until he settled his hand against his stomach and checked that there wasn’t any mortal wound there. It was a pity that his right arm kept being absent, Nero thought self-mockingly, since he wouldn’t have minded at all that its loss had also being part of the dream.

Exhaling a frustrated sigh Nero dropped on the bed again, suppressing a soft pained gasp when his body protested for the bruises gained in the previous day battle. His brusque wake up and the bounce of the bed when he lied on it made the sleeping figure next to him move while humming. Nero kept completely still, as if doing that would make Kyrie go back to sleep, but the harm was done and the woman muttered a still half-asleep ‘ _Nero?_ ’ that made this one curse in a low tone, annoyed with himself.

“Sorry”, Nero turned to his right side to spoon Kyrie from behind, enclosing his arm around her waist before kissing the back of her head as an apology, “didn’t want to wake you up”

Kyrie chuckled softly and put herself comfortable against Nero’s warm body, caressing Nero’s arm with her fingers with delicacy.

“You had another nightmare?”, she inquired softly, turning her head to the side to look at Nero, who nodded once.

“Yeah”, he closed his eyes and exhaled a short sigh, “I dreamed with that bastard again”

Kyrie turned around in the bed to be facing Nero, who opened his eyes again when feeling Kyrie’s hand caressing his cheek with the back of her fingers.

“Do you still want to go back there today?”

As always that he heard that barely concealed concern in Kyrie’s voice, Nero felt a pang of guiltiness invading him for worrying his girlfriend way more times than it should be allowed in any normal relationship, but he nodded with determination nevertheless.

Kyrie bit her lower lip, clearly fighting to protest against it, so Nero continued.

“Kyrie, listen: this isn’t just to make him pay for taking my arm anymore. That bastard has Dante. And Trish. And Lady. And as long as he is still there, the people of Red Grave will be in danger”, Nero grabbed Kyrie’s hand and pressed it softly, “you will be in danger. So I can’t simply sit without doing anything”

Kyrie exhaled a soft sigh and nodded, a resigned smile appearing in her lips.

“I guess that playing the hero and saving the world once wasn’t enough for you.”

Nero chuckled, settling his arm around Kyrie’s lower back to press her more against him in a tight hug. She sighed softly, enclosing her arms around his back in return.

“But please, promise me you’ll be save.”

Nero separated a little from her to nod with conviction.

“I will. And I promise I won’t lose another limb.”

His purposely light comment made Kyrie pout and raise her hand to hit him, but he intercepted her arm and dragged her forward to kiss her, causing her to sigh softly while closing her eyes again.

He had always considered himself lucky for having Kyrie by his side. They had been together since they were kids, first as friends and later as a couple after they defeated Sanctus, and except that moment in which Kyrie doubted him after learning about his demonic arm, the woman had always been supporting him. Nero suspected that one of the reasons why Kyrie barely complained about his not precisely normal life as a Devil Hunter was because she hadn’t forgiven herself for that mistake, even if Nero had insisted her more times that he could remember that there wasn’t anything to forgive.

However, probably the main motive why Kyrie was still with him despite all the worry he usually put her through was that she knew that Nero couldn’t live any other way. He had always liked risk, preferring without a doubt fighting against hordes of demons than working behind a desk, safe but dying of boredom. Kyrie knew that, and she accepted him with its consequences. In fact, Nero had been really grateful when Kyrie hadn’t insisted him to remain in Fortuna hospital when finally waking up from his coma after losing his arm, accompanying him to Red Grave instead when he decided to finish his recovery there in case his help was necessary. Which, at end, it was even if his contribution to the fight wasn’t as helpful as it should, he thought with bitterness.

While thinking about all that, Nero wasn’t aware that he was getting more into the kiss, deepening it without noticing, until feeling Kyrie’s intake of air, but when she responded to it equally he decided it wouldn’t hurt if things escalated a little, so he changed their positions so that Kyrie’s back was against the bed. Having a single arm now was a pain in the ass to maneuver, but he managed to position himself between Kyrie’s legs while continuing kissing her.

Kyrie’s hands grabbed his back with more force when he tentatively rocked down against her, causing her to gasp softly while beginning to undulate her hips up against him as well, her nightdress sliding more and more upwards with every movement. That was as far as they had gone, since he knew Kyrie preferred to wait until marriage to do anything else and he obviously respected her decision, so his heart skipped a beat when feeling Kyrie’s hands settling on his loose pajama pants, beginning to lower them slowly.

Nero stopped completely, looking at Kyrie without bothering to hide his surprise. She bit her bottom lip with certain embarrassment, a nice blush adorning her cheeks, and surprised him once again by resuming their kissing with the same intensity as before. He couldn’t help to groan, his stomach clenching in anticipation when Kyrie’s delicate fingers settled in the border of his underwear in order to sneak teasingly inside and...

 

**_RIIIIIIIIING_ **

 

Both Nero and Kyrie jumped startled on the bed, the first one exhaling a curse while she let out a soft high-pitched cry.

“Do you think it’s Morrison?”, Kyrie inquired while Nero reluctantly abandoned the bed.

“He said he’d pass by around 9, so I don’t think so.”

Nero was about to open the door of the room when Kyrie gasped before talking with an enthusiastic tone.

“What if it’s Nico’s packet?”

Nero’s eyes illuminated when hearing her suggestion. After he lost his arm Nico decided to immediately begin to work in a prosthetic one, and she said it would take her around two weeks to have it ready, so it could very much be it.

“You right! I’ll go check it out.”

“Wait, Nero, shouldn’t you change yourself first?”

By when Kyrie finished her sentence Nero was already climbing down the stairs leading to the main floor. He jumped the last two sets of steps and ran towards the door to open it wide, his smile vanishing when realizing that the visitor wasn’t precisely the postman.

* * *

V was about to ring the bell again when the door opened violently and Nero appeared in the frame. His green eyes opened a little more, scanning Nero’s briefly because he wasn’t expecting the boy’s partial nudity state, but he recovered his imperturbable expression almost immediately before talking with a polite tone.

“Good morning, Nero.”

For the way Nero’s body tensed and the frown that passed to adorn his expression, the named one didn’t look particularly happy to see him.

“V. What are you doing here?”

The rudeness of Nero’s tone confirmed V’s previous suspicions about the boy disliking his presence there. However, he didn’t have the least intention of leaving with his hands empty, and as long as he managed to use Nero’s help, the way the young man felt towards him couldn’t be more irrelevant.

“If I’m not mistaken, we had agreed to meet today.”

“Yeah, we did, but the meeting is in two hours.”

V’s answer to Nero’s snap of words was to hum to himself before adopting a light confused tone that didn’t seem to convince the young man, whose frown simply increased. It seemed that the boy wasn’t completely dumb and could somehow sense when he was being fooled.

“My apologies then. Morrison didn’t inform me about the specific time. Would you be kind enough to let me enter nevertheless?”

Nero exhaled a resigned sigh before stepping inside, which V took an invitation to enter. He had just closed the creaking door behind him and was about to address Nero when he felt movement in the upper floor. Nero followed V’s inquisitive eyes and seemed to deduce what the man was going to ask because he talked.

“Don’t worry. It’s just my girlfriend.”

V looked at Nero again, a light knowing smirk appearing in his face.

“I hope not having interrupted anything important.”

His tone hadn’t sounded probably too sincere because Nero snorted, the way his ears reddened proving V’s assumption of him and his fiancé having been involved in acts of sexual nature not long ago. Definitely that boy was an open book. If his reactions in battle were so predictable as well, they would need to work hard so that they weren’t as evident.

“So, what can I do for you?”

While talking Nero leaned against the old table where Dante had been sitting the day V hired his services. V noticed the way Nero had been about to cross his arms before realizing he couldn’t do so anymore, opting to let his left arm fall boneless next to his body. Nero glared at him, as if daring him to mention something about the mistake, but V simply settled his cane on the floor in front of him and leaned his hands on it, looking at Nero in the eye.

“Well, since you don’t precisely look like the embodiment of patience, I will go straight to the point.”

The brief confused expression that passed through Nero’s face let V know that the was probably thinking about the meaning of ‘embodiment’, but it wasn’t in his hand to educate the surely uncultured boy, so he decided to simply focus on the matter that had brought him there.

“What happened yesterday can be considered a lesson not to underestimate Urizen’s power again”, Nero’s hand turned into a fist when V spelled that name, “he is clearly an enemy that can’t be taken lightly, and that some preparations are needed in order to have any opportunity to defeat him.”

Nero looked at V with curiosity.

“So, you are saying you have a plan to beat the crap out of him?”

“More or less. Though more than a ‘plan’ per se…”, V took his cane and signaled at Nero with it with a fluent gesture, “...it’s an offer for you.”

Nero frowned with confusion, but his curiosity intensified.

“Okay, and what is this ‘offer’ about?”

V leaned his weight on his cane again.

“Well, it’s evident that there are many things we don’t know about Urizen yet, such as where he comes from, what his goal is…”, V lied without blinking before beginning to say more truthful things, “...or from where he obtains his power. I don’t know if you have paid attention to the news, but since last night some strange-looking roots with unknown origin had been seen growing in the cities surrounding Red Grave, which means that the range of Urizen’s power is, again, higher than we expected. Therefore, I strongly think that gathering information about what’s happening in these places can be crucial to know more about this demon, and guarantee that our next encounter with him isn’t as unfortunate.”

When V made a brief pause to continue, Nero intervened.

“Okay, I get what you are saying about learning more about this bastard, but I still don’t see where I fit in all this.”

‘ _That’s because you interrupt instead of listening_ ’, V thought with resignation.

 “Simple: you will be coming with me.”

Nero blinked, looking at V as if thinking this one was joking, and when seeing he wasn’t, he barked an incredulous laugh.

“Alright, I know we don’t know much about each other, but I think it’s evident that this gathering information stuff is not meant for me.”

V was really close to say that he was aware that using his brain was not among Nero’s strengths, but he guessed that if he wanted to convince Nero to accept his offer, insulting his selected intelligence wasn’t the best method to achieve so.

“Yes, I have already deduced you are more a man of action—”

“Good. Glad we agree on that”, V’s jaw tensed lightly when Nero interrupted him again to speak with a tone that was way too carefree considering the situation they were discussing, “so what about this? You can collect all the information you can about this asshole and meanwhile I will go to rescue the others.”

It was V’s turn to blink slowly, hoping that Nero was doing a really bad joke, but when seeing his determined expression, he realized that unfortunately he wasn’t.

“Nero, are you _really_ suggesting to face Urizen again?”

“Yeah.”

“In your current state?”

“Well, as you can see, I’m already recovered. And now I know how this bastard attacks, so he won’t catch me out of guard anymore. I’m sure I’ll have time to guess where Dante, Trish and Lady are, and then we can face him again. I mean, we’ll be four against one: maybe we don’t even need all that information you are talking about.”

There were so many wrong things with Nero’s plan, if it could even be called that way, that V honestly didn’t know where to start to refute the boy’s arguments, which allowed Nero to speak once again with an annoying confident tone that had absolute zero foundations. 

“So, let’s do it this way”, Nero stopped leaning against the table, considering the conversation over, and was about to leave towards the first floor presumably to get changed when he stopped in his tracks, “or hey, maybe it would be better if we both went to rescue everyone. That bird of yours can be useful to bring the others in case they are still unconscious. And well, in case we see that bitch is as unbeatable as you say, we can always leave and regroup again later.”

This time, when Nero gave his back to him to resume his way upstairs, V didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

“I don’t know if accompanying you will be helpful, Nero. I think it’s enough with having one deadweight in the group.”

V was aware that it was probably a little childish to enjoy the way Nero stopped completely still, before turning around slowly with all his body in tension and his jaw tense.

“What did you just call me?”

V guessed that Nero’s warning tone combined with the glare he was throwing at him could certainly frighten some people. But V wasn’t ‘some people’, and the fact that despite Nero’s obvious anger there wasn’t any murderous intent behind the boy’s words, caused that the young man’s reaction sounded more like a tantrum than an actual dangerous threat.

“Actually, I called us both deadweights. Because that’s exactly what we are against Urizen right now”, V didn’t raise his voice, but his tone had a sharper edge on it that made Nero be silent for once, “I don’t think you are aware of how lucky we are of having left Urizen’s den alive, in one piece. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it was a miracle we survived, so suggesting to go there again, unprepared, with the poor argument of knowing how he is going to attack us, it’s not a plan: it’s suicide _._ ”

“Okay, you know what?”, Nero vehemently approached V until being a mere meter away from him, “yeah, we may have underestimated that bastard. All of us. And yeah, maybe we can’t win against him yet...”

“Remove that ‘maybe’, because it’s crystal clear we can’t win against him yet.”

“...but we can’t allow that bastard to attack people without even lifting his ass from his fucking chair!”

“Alright, first of all…”, V raised his cane and signaled Nero’s head with it without averting his eyes from Nero’s ones, “...get this through your thick little skull: we are in _no_ position of allowing Urizen anything. _He_ is the one who has the upper hand, _he_ is the one who allowed us to leave, and you are naive by assuming we now know all his attacks: he probably didn’t bother to go with all he had because he didn’t even consider we were worth the effort. _That_ was a mistake. A mistake that has given us the chance to do things right”

When Nero’s only reaction was to huff, V had to refrain himself for hitting the boy’s head with his cane. Certainly, he hadn’t expected that dealing with Nero was so extenuating. Maybe Griffon was right and he should search for an alternative, but with Dante defeated, his chances of finding someone better in a decent period of time were scarce. Also, he hadn’t a rational explanation for it yet, but somehow, he really felt Nero had the necessary potential to fix all the mess that man had caused...

“And you really want me to believe that ‘doing things right’ means simply going in a fucking trip for clues that maybe take us nowhere?”

...or he really hoped so, because standing that insufferable kid for nothing would be certainly frustrating.

“Not _just_ to find clues”, honestly, he was a little impressed that his tone kept being apparently calm, “but also to train, to get stronger, and to be really prepared so that our next encounter can at least be considered a proper battle instead of a pathetic one-way beating.”

Nero exhaled a sigh, scratched the back of his head, and looked at V again.

“Look, it’s evident we aren’t going to agree on this, so do what you have to do and I’ll do the same. If you change your mind and want to join me to look for the others, you’re welcome”

Once again, Nero turned his back to leave, and once again V stopped him, this time by hooking the top of his cane on Nero’s shoulder, stopping his advance.

“Alright”, V exhaled a long deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose with his other hand before looking at Nero with patience, “since it’s evident that using words with you is pretty useless, we will settle this the only way you seem to understand”, before Nero could protest V continued, “let’s have a fight.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide, his previous annoyance replaced by astonishment.

“What?”

“You say you want to face Urizen again, don’t you? Well, convince me you can have at least a chance to do so. If you win, you are free to go rescue the rest, fight against Urizen, lose again, and die stupidly in the process...”

“Hey!”

“...but, if I win…”, V forced Nero to turn around completely, approaching his face more to his and causing Nero to automatically push his head a little back, mildly uncomfortable by the invoker’s sudden proximity, “...we’ll do it my way. Do we have a deal?”

V offered Nero his left hand but instead of shaking it the boy simply stared at it, hesitating.

“Relax. Since you are impaired, I’ll be merciful.”

V didn’t bother to hide his smirk when his obvious provocation made Nero’s eyes shine with fury before finally shaking his hand with way more force than necessary, probably expecting V to let any sign of discomfort but the invoker showed none, holding Nero’s glare without losing his smug grin in the process.

“I really hope you have a fucking army of birds with you because you are going to need them”, Nero snapped, finally turning around to walk with vehemence towards the stairs, “I’m going for my weapons and we can begin.”

“Don’t forget to bring a t-shirt as well.”

Again, V enjoyed probably too much Nero answering with a huff before finally disappearing upstairs.

* * *

“So, what are the rules?”, Nero asked once they reached the alley situated behind Devil May Cry, swinging Red Queen in the air as he used to do before beginning a battle.

Due to the fact that the office was way too close to the zone that had been sealed for the police the previous night, there weren’t many people in the streets, since most part of them had decided to momentarily left their houses until the situation was contained, in an attempt to find a more secure place to live in the meantime. But that was a temporary solution: as long as Urizen kept being there, that bastard would keep creating more of that root-like things and there wouldn’t be any zone to be safe inside the city, which meant that he had to defeat V soon to focus on what it really mattered, that was to find the others and try to kick that asshole back to Hell, from where he had surely come from.

“Let’s see…”, some meters away from him, V extracted a book from somewhere inside his not very abundant clothes, part of his tattoos vanishing in the air in order to invoke Griffon, who remained next to him flapping his wings, “...how about the first one forced to kneel loses?”

“Hah?! What a softie, V! You could go at least for the first blood!”

Nero snorted with confidence, digging Red Queen on the ground next to him.

“I don’t think that’s good for your owner, birdie. He looks pretty anemic already and that would just weaken him even more.”

Nero smirked when his comment caused V’s previous grin to freeze, the tone he used to talk next sounding still smooth but with a tinge of unequivocal anger.

“I will be generous, and accept your pleas as well”, V said with dangerous calm, finally opening his book with a firm movement of his wrist.

Nero snorted.

“Sorry, but I’ve never knelt for anyone neither begged for anything, and I’m not planning to do it now.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Nero gritted his teeth when hearing V’s condescending tone. The bastard was stubborn, he had to give him that, but he hadn’t time to waste there, so without averting his eyes from the invoker he began to charge his sword.

“When do we begin?”

V’s smirked widened.

“Who said we haven’t already?”

Nero had to thank his extremely fast reflexes when he was able to give a jump back to barely avoid the shadow that had appeared under his feet, and that emerged from it like a giant hedgehog, throwing several spikes at him. Nero caught a small glimpse of Shadow’s feline form before being forced to situate his sword in horizontal at his face level, in order to protect himself from the lethal spinning blade the panther had turned himself into immediately after.

Gritting his teeth for the effort, Nero tried to push Red Queen against Shadow to prevent him from cutting his head in two. Nero suppressed a curse, keeping his energies not to be outmatched by Shadow while thinking about a way to get closer to V, since defeated the invoker defeated the monsters, everyone knew that. But still shit, it had been a huge mistake not to realize that V had invoked Griffon _and_ Shadow at the same time, just keeping the bird in plain view to effectively fool Nero. And honestly, he didn’t know V’s tattoos so well to identify the ones that vanished when invoking his respective familiars, though maybe he should begin to memorize them. After all, he wasn’t even sure that that man was a friend or an enemy. He better be prepared for the worst case.

At that moment, Nero heard V begin to recite some kind of poem, but he didn’t even have time to understand the verses (not that he was going to recognize them anyway), because at that moment both Shadow and Griffon’s bodies were surrounded with a violet aura. Suddenly, Nero felt himself being pushed against the wall, his breathing forced out his lungs because of the unexpected impact. He realized that the panther’s strength had multiplied, probably as a result of V’s words, and that at this rate it was impossible for him to keep Shadow back with the force of one arm.

The doubts he could still have about V being holding back vanished when a red lightning coming from Griffon ended centimeters next to his head. Seeing that the crow looked like being about to throw another attack, Nero risked himself to release Red Queen and crouch rapidly in the floor before rolling to his side, just when three more pillars of lightning impacted in the exact place where he had been a mere second ago.

With the adrenaline of being actually fighting for his life running through his veins, Nero had time to estimate that there were three meters between him and V, who hadn’t moved since the battle started and kept commanding his familiars without averting his concentrated gaze from Nero at any moment.

“Shit, this boy moves fast!!”

Griffon’s comment allowed Nero to easily avoid the crow’s next attack. Since he had left his sword back for the sake of keeping having his head in place, Nero extracted Blue Rose and without hesitating shot at V. He groaned in frustration when Griffon managed to teleport back to his owner to move him away from the bullet’s trajectory. While doing so though, Nero was unable to keep his attention on Shadow, who made the most of his distraction to lunge against him in his panther form. With a loud curse Nero managed to shoot at the familiar, causing the animal to roar and stop momentarily, which gave Nero enough time to begin to run after V.

He was forced to jump in order to avoid two electric shots coming from Griffon that planned to hit him with a pincer movement. Thanks to the impulse of the jump he ended a mere meter away from V, feeling a wave of satisfaction when the invoker’s eyes opened more in surprise, not having expected seeing him that close.

However, his expectations to win didn’t last much, because when he was going to point Blue Rose at V, something he didn’t identify at first but that resulted to be some kind of black tentacles coming from Shadow got entangled around his feet, making him fall flat on the ground with a shout. He rapidly tried to incorporate, but the tentacles enclosed around his middle chest, keeping him kneeling in front of V, the invoker’s superior smirk from above indicating him it was over.

“Well, if you can’t even beat an ‘anemic’…”, Nero’s heart skipped a beat when V pointed at him with his cane, settling the piercing end of it under Nero’s chin and against his neck, “...I hardly think you can stand a chance against the Demon King.”

Nero’s jaw tensed while staring back at V, who was looking at him from above with an arrogant triumphant expression, his green eyes still shining more due to the intensity of the recent battle.

“Being called weak got to you, huh?”

He hissed more in surprise than in pain when V pressed the cane a little more just above his Adam apple after hearing his mocking comment, causing a superficial wound from which some drops of blood began to slide down his neck. He didn’t move though, smirking up challengingly when V half-closed his eyes at him as his knuckles turned white.

After some seconds V seemed to calm himself again, exhaling a long breath before beginning to bend, turning his cane around so that the top of it ended under Nero’s chin.

“If I’m that weak…”, V forced Nero to raise his head, grinning again while approaching his face more to him, “...where does that leave you, Nero?”

Nero gritted his teeth, not having noticed that tiny detail before insulting V. He moved his head with force to try to butthead V but this one separated from him in time, finally calling Shadow back so that his tentacles finally liberated Nero. Clicking his tongue Nero finally stood up, ignoring the hand V offered him to help him doing so. He rolled his shoulders and glared at V, who didn’t look the least bothered about it, but as much as he hated to admit it, the invoker was right. If he hadn’t even managed to win against V, he hadn’t much to do against Urizen, not now at least, and going there to risk himself get killed wouldn’t help Dante and the others.

In fact, now he thought about it, V hadn’t even needed to invoke that golem of his to beat him, so probably the best solution was to follow V’s plan, even if the perspective of travelling alone with the invoker, with someone he didn’t even know he could trust, was the last thing Nero wanted to do at the moment.

“Alright then, since yesterday and today have been pretty intense for you, make sure to rest”, V began to walk down the alley, “tomorrow I will pass by the office at 7.30 a.m.”

“What? So soon?”

V stopped to throw an ironic side glance at Nero when this one couldn’t help to complain.

“Didn’t you want to beat Urizen as soon as possible? The soonest the trip begins, the soonest we will be able to make that happen, don’t you think?”

Nero exhaled a defeated sigh, observing V disappear down the alley before finally coming back to Devil May Cry. He had barely entered through the door, with the intention to go back to bed in order to sleep a couple of more hours, when he was assaulted by a rather worried Kyrie.

“How are you? Have you won? Wait...is that blood?!”

Nero was still trying to come up with something that tried to justify the wound (or otherwise even Kyrie didn’t let him travel with V) when the doorbell sounded. Thinking it was the invoker again, Nero opened it brusquely, causing the person at the other side to jump startled.

“Dude, what’s with that scary expression?! That’s not the way to open a door, you know? No doubt you barely have clients, tsk.”

“Nico?”, Nero said with surprise while Kyrie kept examining the extremely tiny wound on his neck, just before his face illuminated when seeing the bag the newcomer was carrying, “wait, is that—?”

The mechanic laughed proudly before swinging the bag in front of Nero’s expectant face.

“Yeah, boy: guess who has a reaaaally yummy and cool present for you~?”

The way the woman looked exaggeratedly at Nero’s missing arm made this one smirk. It seemed that his plan of taking an early nap was going to be postponed. He had an arm to recover first.

* * *

“Is he gone already?”

“You mean the boy?”, Griffon looked back while still flying next to V, “yeah, he just abandoned the alley.”

V exhaled a deep breath and stopped, lying his whole weight against the closest wall and letting himself slide towards the floor until being sitting on it.

“V?!”, Griffon squawked when seeing the invoker begin to breathe agitatedly, tsking after realizing what had happened, “jeez, you were just playing tough, weren’t you?”

V exhaled a breathless chuckle while Griffon sighed with exasperation.

“I couldn’t let him see me like this, or he would have probably refused to follow my plan”, exhaling a new long sigh, he closed his eyes while allowing himself some minutes of peace, “I wasn’t expecting he was able to stand so many attacks. His ability is impressive, and also his stamina”

The bird huffed something unintelligible that had the words ‘stubborn kid’ on them and landed on the ground, remaining next to V while he recovered. It was a luck that he hadn’t needed to invoke Nightmare, or his energies had been completely spent for sure. Definitely, Nero wasn’t the only one who had to improve his fighting skills. It was not acceptable that he ended that tired after half-a-dozen of attacks. He had to get better. Stronger, he thought with irony.

“Hey, V…”

“Yes?”

After a short pause, Griffon talked.

“You were about to lost it there, right? When he called you weak?”

V suppressed a soft gulp, not saying anything but his omission being enough answer for the crow, who sighed without adding anything for once. He knew he had been about to act rather exaggeratedly back then. In fact, he couldn’t deny that, for a brief moment, the thought of sliding Nero’s throat open for being so impertinent had crossed his mind. It was certainly problematic to be part of someone who, being apparently so calm, held so many contradictory and strong feelings inside, and definitely the fact that Vergil hated weakness above everything else wasn’t precisely easy to deal with, considering the far-from-strong body he had at the moment, so he had to be careful not to let those reactions come to light.

After all, it seemed Urizen wasn’t the only one he had underestimated, because if Nero had left him close to exhaustion with one arm and still recovering from his wounds, what couldn’t he do with more training and in top shape? So definitely killing the boy in an impulse wouldn’t benefit them at all, but the exact opposite.

Still with his eyes closed V smiled to himself, thinking that maybe the trip ended being more interesting and productive that he had initially thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for Kyrie but as much as V and Nero dislike each other right now, they are ending together xDD


	3. (May 18) - Three warnings

**_May 18 - 7:42 a.m_**.

Griffon had mentioned while V walked towards Devil May Cry that arriving punctual wasn’t necessary, since Nero gave the vibes of someone who would always be late. However, the familiar had been wrong and when V opened the door at exactly 7.30, the young man was ready to go, being the source of their current 10 minutes delay no one else than his annoying fiancée.

 

“Please, promise me you will be careful.”

“Of course I will.”

“Nero, I’m serious, if something ever happened to you…”

“Kyrie, nothing is going to happen to me, okay?”

“Nothing _else_ you mean?”

“Hey, come on, at the end I have a new arm! And it’s super cool don’t you think—? _Ouch_!”

“That’s not the point, silly! Promise me you will come back alive.”

“I will.”

“Are you sure?”

“God, Kyrie, yes, I’m sure.”

“Then promise me!”

“I did that already!”

“No, you didn’t say the words ‘I promise’, so would you do it? For me?”

 

At that point, even V was about to swear to the woman that Nero would be back safe and sound so that she stopped clinging to the boy, because he had already lost count of the iterations those two had gone through with baseless promises.

Contenting himself with taking a deep breath while suppressing the urge of rolling his eyes, V waited with patience for Kyrie and Nero to stop hugging tightly, hoping that the woman set Nero free after it to finally start their journey. However, Nero had barely separated from her when Kyrie enclosed her arms around the boy’s neck to kiss him, coming back (once again) to the promises exigencies. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to bite his tongue in case of continuing witnessing that sickeningly sweet farewell worthy of a teenager romance, V leaned against the wall next to Devil May Cry office and extracted his book of poems to read in the meantime.

After another 5 minutes, Nero was, _finally_ , released and approached him.

“Have you two finished already?”

He made an effort to sound politely neutral, but some of his impatience must have slipped on his tone because Nero’s eyes half-closed briefly. The boy didn’t have the chance of retorting anything because at that moment Kyrie approached them both. V feared for a moment that the woman kidnapped Nero once again but, surprisingly, it was him the one she addressed.

“V, right?”, she said with a soft tone, smiling at him, “uhm, could I ask you for a favor?”

V raised an eyebrow, his curiosity winning against his will.

“Well, it depends on what it is about.”

Despite his answer had been rather neutral, the woman smiled widely before offering a pouting expression at Nero, whose eyes opened wide as if he had been caught doing something wrong.

“Since you seem to be way more prudent than him, could you please keep an eye on my reckless boyfriend?”

“Dammit, Kyrie, how many times I have to promise you that I’ll be okay so that you believe me!?”

When hearing the woman’s petition, V’s first thought was that Nero wouldn’t be of any use to him if the boy wasn’t able to survive without help, but when realizing those two planned to continue with their previous tiring argument he immediately intervened, offering Kyrie a serene smile that, he hoped, was believable enough.

“Rest assured. I promise I will return your boyfriend to you as soon as possible, and in one piece.”

Definitely those two were made for each other, he thought when the words of a stranger were all the woman needed to exhale a relieved sigh. They both were extremely simple minded.

“Great. Thank you!”

Kyrie tiptoed then to deposit a final feathery kiss in Nero’s lips and, after offering a grateful smile to V, she came back inside the office while Nero sighed, probably still a little offended by Kyrie’s lack of faith in his self-care.

“So…”, V stored his book back inside his clothes and used his cane to signal the main road, “...let’s proceed.”

“What?”, Nero asked with confusion, beginning to follow V who had begun walking without waiting for him, “wait, shouldn’t we decide where we are going first?”

“It’s already been decided.”

Nero frowned.

“Oh, it has?”

Nero was visibly not amused for having been left out of that decision, but V had already foreseen such a reaction.

“Well, wasn’t it you the one who claimed that ‘gathering information stuff’ was not your thing?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say about this whole trip thing.”

“Alright”, V stopped, tilting his head a little to the side to look at Nero with fake curiosity, “then enlighten me, Nero: according to you, where do you suggest we should start searching?”

The way Nero subtly gulped, clearly caught off guard, didn’t go unnoticed by V, whose condescending smile just grew a little, immediately putting Nero on the defensive.

“Okay, fine, maybe I haven’t thought too thoroughly about it but—”

“Well, then it is a luck that I have done that work for you, don’t you think?”

For the way Nero tensed his jaw he didn’t look particularly grateful, but he seemed to accept V’s argument for the time being and continued walking next to the invoker, stuffing his left hand on his pocket.

“And I’m allowed to know where we are going or that’s is also out of my league?”

Sarcasm was obvious in Nero’s voice but V answered as if he hadn’t detected it.

“No, that you can know”, Nero was clearly about to protest for V’s comment so the invoker continued talking, turning around the corner to continue walking through an alley leading to the main plaza, “as I told you yesterday, in the cities surrounding Red Grave the apparition of roots similar to the ones Urizen invoked had been reported. The closest city to Red Grave is Hillside, so this will be our first stop.”

“Okay, so we are going there to destroy them before they attack anyone else, right?”

“No.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when hearing V’s monosyllabic answer.

“What do you mean with that ‘ _No_ ’?”

V sighed with patience and turned towards Nero once again.

“What I mean is that our priority now is to learn what is happening, because as your fiancée has hinted, acting recklessly could get both of us killed.”

Nero snorted.

“Yeah, you proved your point yesterday. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stay put if those things begin to attack people.”

Seeing that the current conversation was going to lead to a new argument in case of continuing, V decided to postpone the probably unavoidable fight or otherwise they would never reach the city in the first place.

“Well, we can determine the details of our course of action when we are there so, for the time being, let’s focus on arriving there.”

Before Nero could complain more V resumed his walk with the young man walking slightly behind because the alley was too narrow to walk comfortably side by side. He thought once again that it was really frustrating to have to depend on that muscle brain to do the job.

“‘ _A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees._ ’”

“What?”

V hadn’t realized he had muttered that quote aloud until hearing Nero’s suspicious tone from behind.

“Just talking to myself”, he simply said, because making Nero understand poetry was a battle that, fortunately, he hadn’t signed for.

* * *

Nero followed V to the limits of the sealed area surrounding Urizen’s den, where several cars had been abandoned after the roots’ attacks left them in a pretty broken state. Among those vehicles there was one which, at least, looked still usable, though Nero doubted it could stand the whole trip without breaking down or running out of gas. However, it wasn’t as if they had many other options: there wasn’t any place in Red Grave where they could rent a vehicle, and the authorities of Red Grave had decided to give priority to the destinations where those mysterious roots hadn’t been spotted, which meant that there weren’t any available buses or trains at the moment that could take them to Hillside, since it was a pretty isolated city.

Nero exhaled a soft sigh from the driver seat while leaving Red Grave behind. He really hoped Kyrie was _really_ planning to come back to Fortuna that same day as she had assured him, because he suspected the woman hadn’t been entirely sincere with him and planned to stay behind for a while to help in Red Grave hospital. He thought with resignation that Kyrie should be the last person in protesting for his lack of self-care when she risked herself the moment someone needed help, but he was ready to prove her that he could be mature enough not to need a babysitter…

“Turn left in the next crossroads.”

...because like hell if he needed _him_ as a babysitter.

Suppressing a new sigh Nero followed V’s indication. The road was completely deserted, their car being the only source of sound in the outside. However, inside the vehicle everything was pretty quiet, since the moment they both took their seats V had immediately returned to his reading, his right arm leaning on the car window while his left sustained that book of poetry of his.

Nero couldn’t lie: he didn’t like V. The invoker was strong despite his appearance, yeah, he reluctantly gave him that, but his attitude of always being right really got on his nerves. Besides, he may not be the cleverest man around, but he could perfectly detect when he was being underestimated, and V’s way of talking to him clearly showed the invoker thought himself better than him, which also pissed him off.

And what the hell did he mean with not wanting to do anything with those roots? He hadn’t insisted when V had purposely changed the topic, but like hell if he was going to let those fucking things do whatever they wanted. He may not stand a chance against Urizen yet, but those plants? He bet they could go down with a good delivered hit of Red Queen. And now thanks to Nico he had Overture (yes, the woman put name to her ‘lovely creations’ as she called them): a new arm that allowed to throw electrical shots, which meant that he had almost recovered all his strength in battle. ‘Almost’ because he was still getting used to his new arm and it still felt a little weird to wear, but he could deal with it.

“Turn left again in the next”

Since Nero was lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the next exit, which made him change directions more brusquely, forcing V to grab the handle of the car ceiling not to fall towards Nero’s side. The invoker threw a light reproaching glance before returning to his reading, which made Nero suppress the urge of clicking his tongue. Damn, that guy didn’t forgive even one tiny mistake or what? If V happened to have another cane up his ass he wouldn’t be surprised in the least.

He felt the temptation of changing directions again violently to make V lose balance again, but at that moment he imagined the face Kyrie would surely put at him. He was pretty sure that the woman would encourage him to try to get along with V, since they would be travelling together for a while and the chances of them having to collaborate would be high, so after taking a deep breath he said the first thing it came to his mind to try to break the ice.

“So…”, he suddenly breaking the silence caused V to throw a curious side glance at him, “...where that ‘V’ comes from? I guess that’s not your real name, right?”

Nero thought it was a pretty valid question, so he didn’t understand why the tension between the invoker and him seemed to increase.

“Well, I guess imagination wasn’t on my parents’ side.”

Nero bit his tongue when V didn’t even bother to come up with a credible lie to answer him, but he decided not to give up yet.

“And where the hell did you get those clothes? Did you beat a punk or something?”

Again, wrong question for the way V exhaled a long sigh and momentarily lowered his book to his lap to look at Nero with a polite smile.

“Seriously, Nero, there is no need to try so hard.”

Nero frowned, not understanding V’s comment.

“What?”

The invoker continued with a smooth tone that contrasted with the coldness of his next words.

“I mean that the only reason why we are on this trip together is because we have a common objective, but in order to fulfil it I believe that tolerating each other’s presence would be more than enough. You do not have to like me, I do not have to like you, and I think it goes without saying that, all things considered, the probabilities of you and I becoming close acquaintances are scarce, so do not feel obliged to be friendly with me because I assure you it could not be more unnecessary. And also…”, V opened his book again, diverting his eyes from Nero’s dumbfounded expression to the pages covered in verses, “...do not forget that ‘ _silence is often the best thing to say.’_ ”

Still looking at V, Nero exhaled a deep breath and focused on the road again, nodding to himself.

“Cool then”, he said, honestly glad that the cards had been put on the table and that he didn’t have to continue with the chit-chat when he couldn’t care less about V, or where his damn name came from. He _may_ have had an actual curiosity about it but if the man wasn’t willing to share such a simple thing, like hell if he was going to insist.

“Turn right in the next.”

Nero nodded again, his neutral expression contrasting with the violent turn of wheel he made, causing V this time to be about to release his book while being pressed against the window, the surprise causing Griffon to end invoked accidentally in the back seats.

“Damnit, you want to kill us or what, you brute!?”, the bird protested, squawking when Nero’s next turn provoked the bird to roll on the back seats, though V was able to grab the handle in time.

“Sorry, the road is a little shitty”, Nero looked at V, who was glaring at him without any subtleness anymore while Griffon kept cursing behind them, “maybe you want to put the belt on. Curves are dangerous, you know?”

“Perhaps it’s not the road’s fault but the driver’s incompetence”, the invoker retorted softly but with obvious sarcasm, causing Nero to shrug without stopping returning V’s gaze.

“Maybe, but if you have a problem with my way of driving…”, Nero stepped on the brake to stop brusquely in the middle of the road, leaning his elbow on the steering wheel while signaling at V with his chin, “...you can always take my place instead.”

Nero’s suspicions about V knowing shit about driving were confirmed when the invoker exhaled a long, resigned sigh and lied against his seat again. And yes, it was childish, but Nero couldn’t prevent a wave of satisfaction from invading him when V invoked Griffon back and silently followed his advice by securing the belt across his upper body, allowing him to resume his now calmer driving.

* * *

Nero’s predictions of the car not lasting much proved to be right when after two hours the vehicle began to give warnings of stopping in case they didn’t recharge. Fortunately, there was a [gas station](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/170328180654-sony-world-photography-award-2017-ralphgrf-germany-open-travel-2017.jpg) a couple of kilometers ahead and they managed to arrive when the car was beginning to make really suspicious sounds that threatened to leave them both stranded in the road.

“Damn”, the employer of the gas station exclaimed when V and Nero exited the car, staring at the vehicle with an expression full of pity, “what happened to this poor thing?”

“Red Grave.”

The man whistled when hearing Nero’s simple answer, grabbing the gas hose of one of the individual stands.

“Yeah, I heard things are pretty bad there.”

Nero continued talking with the man while V separated a little from them, scanning the area with his eyes. They were the only clients around and everything was apparently pretty calm, but his instincts made him be in alert, causing that Griffon appeared next to him once again.

“You feel that, V?”

V nodded in silence, his gaze focused on the area situated between the gas station and the small cafe. Nero approached him at that moment, frowning while looking between him and the spot that had caught his attention.

“What’s wrong?”

V signaled with the top of his cane towards the place.

“It seems we have some shy guests waiting for us to approach there.”

Nero reached back to take a hold of his weapon.

“What kind of guests?”

V invoked Shadow under his feet, the black trail traversing through the ground and coming back some seconds later before fussing with V again.

“Some demonic insects and airborne evils it seems.”

Nero blinked slowly.

“Who?”

V looked at him with patience.

“Empusas?”, he tried again by using the most common term, causing Nero to huff.

“Damn, couldn’t you say that from the start?”

Nero activated Red Queen and began to walk towards the place with determination, being V’s turn to blink while observing the young man.

“Nero, where are you going?”

“What do you think?”, Nero signaled with his head towards the place Shadow had scanned, “I’m kicking those demons’ asses.”

“Wait”, V’s order was, unsurprisingly, ignored by Nero, so he continued talking while walking behind the boy, “even if Shadow can sense the presence of demons, his predictions are not always completely accurate and it is not wise to—”

“Look, I have faced those demons before, okay?”, Nero stopped in the middle of the area and after unsheathing Red Queen he extracted Blue Rose to point at the floor, the weapon illuminating while charging more powerful bullets, “and they never team up with other kind of demons, so this will be really easy.”

V’s next warning was lost with Nero’s powerful shoot, which caused part of the floor to collapse.

“HEY, what are you doing!?”

The employer, who had finished examining the car, approached them with an angry expression that turned into one of horror when seeing several empusas crawling under the ground some meters under them, moving their front legs towards them as if wanting to grab them.

“I think your place needs some deratization”, Nero said jokingly while activating his weapon, looking at V next, “I got this.”

V observed with an unimpressed expression how Nero dropped in the ground below and began to take care of the demons, using his recently acquired arm to throw electrical shots that left the empusas dizzy enough to finish them rather easily.

“Well, it seems he kid has this under control”, Griffon commented.

While the employer looked at the speaking bird with his eyes completely opened, V’s eyes kept locked on Nero, analyzing with interest his fighting style, since it was the first time he had the chance to observe it from close. The boy’s technique was not bad. Actually, it was pretty impressive, and some of his movements were complicate enough to confirm the young man had received proper training at some point of his life. However, it didn’t go unnoticed by V the grimace that briefly appeared in Nero’s expression while shooting his arm, which probably indicated that he wasn’t completely used to it yet, but that he was forcing himself to overuse it in a random, useless battle that could have perfectly been avoided. Yes, it was clear his impulsivity could be a hindrance in the future, together with his stubbornness.

“Wow, this arm really rocks!”, Nero exclaimed from below with an enthusiastic tone, looking upwards and signaling at V with his sword, interrupting the last’s thoughts, “do you want to fight later and see who kneels now—?”

Before Nero could finish his provocation, the ground below Nero began to tremble and the boy was able to move aside in time to avoid the attack of a gigantic empusa that appeared from the ground.

“Damn Shadow”, Griffon muttered while V placed the cane in horizontal in front of the employer, avoiding this way that the man fell forward after jumping in fear for seeing such an enormous insect under his workplace, “you suck with that sensor thing of yours.”

“Shit!”, Nero was cursing, alternating between shooting with his pistol and his arm while keeping avoiding the empusa’s dangerous attacks, “what the hell is this thing?”

“A Vermin Empress”, V answered with an academic tone, leaning his hands on his cane while observing the battle taking place under him with interest, “though I guess you would prefer to call her ‘Empusa Queen’”

“Fuck”, Nero cursed, crouching in time to avoid an horizontal attack from the empusa and glaring up at V, “hey, are you just going to stare?”

“I thought you got this.”

“Yeah”, Nero jumped to his side, avoiding another attack, “and I had it until this fucking thing appeared so can’t you send one of your pets here?!”

“Oh, I could”, V said casually, “if you ask nicely.”

Nero was about to be hit with a sweeping attack when he stopped focusing on the empusa to look at V with an astonished, angry expression. He managed to deliver a shot at the empusa in her abdomen, which gave him enough time to circle her to put some distance between him and her deathly claws.

“Uhm...V?”, Griffon said with an unsure tone when the empusa surprised Nero by jumping on him, causing the boy to end facing up against the floor with Red Queen placed over him to avoid the demon’s continuous attacks, “shouldn’t you actually lend him a hand?”

V didn’t answer while still observing Nero struggling on the floor with his jaw tense, clearly about to lose the fight but refusing to ask for his help. V waited some seconds but when Griffon talked again, he realized that at that rate Nero would be seriously injured, if not killed. Exhaling a resigned sigh, he pointed in front of him with the top of his cane, summoning Shadow so that the panther attacked the empusa in his spinning blade form.

The demon wasn’t expecting such an attack and immediately turned his body to attack the new enemy, which gave Nero the chance he needed to charge his pistol at full potential and shoot at the empusa in the chest, finally killing it. Nero climbed with certain difficulty back to where V was, his breathing a little heavy for the recent fight.

“Took you your damn sweet time.”

Before V could answer sarcastically to Nero’s accusing tone, the employer of the gas station suddenly cleared his throat, gaining their attention.

“Okay, I haven’t understood half of the things that happened here but thank you for taking care of…”, the man made an ambiguous gesture towards the place where the empusas bodies were now lying, “...those monsters.”

“You are welcome”, Nero answered with a carefree tone while V suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes.

“Also”, the man continued, “before these things appeared, I took a look at your car and I don’t think the poor thing can take you much further. I estimate that in an hour or so his battery will die completely.”

“And is there any possibility you could lend us any other vehicle?”, V intervened while Nero cursed, but the man simply shook his head.

“I’m afraid the only vehicle around here is mine and I need it to come back home after my turn finishes. However, I’m expecting some supplies that should arrive in an hour or so, and I know the guy who is going to deliver them. If you aren’t much in a hurry, I could talk to him so that he takes you to your destination, or at least all the closer he can.”

“That would be indeed very helpful, thank you”, V commented with a little smirk, glad that it hadn’t been necessary to steal that man’s car in order to continue the journey.

“Perfect then. And in the meantime…”, the man looked at them hopingly, “...do you think you could, uhm, get rid of those monster’s bodies? If some clients happen to see them, I’m sure they won’t want to come back.”

V tapped the front of Nero’s shoulder with the top of his cane.

“I’m sure Nero won’t mind”, V was expecting Nero’s face of disbelief and continued talking while looking at the boy, “it was you the one who insisted on fighting them, so it’s only fair that you finish the job, don’t you think?”

V felt Nero’s glare on his back while he walked towards the cafe area to gather some supplies for the journey, not feeling bad in the least for leaving the boy with the dirty job.

* * *

Nero didn’t realize he had dozed off until the truck took the next curve a little brusquely, causing him to be about to fall from the box where he was sitting, just behind the driver’s seat.

“Sorry, kid”, the driver apologized, “from now on curves will be less frequent.”

Nero made a dismissive gesture, putting himself comfortable again, or all the comfortable he could considering that V hadn’t wasted any time in taking the copilot seat while he took care of completely destroying those insects bodies, and damn if that empusa queen wasn’t harder than it looked: it had taken him almost a hundredth of cuts with Red Queen to pulverize the demon.

He rolled his stiff shoulders and suppressed in time a soft gasp when the movement caused the juncture between his severed arm and the mechanic one to burn a little. Nico had already warned him that Overture would put some pressure on his arm, but if it wasn’t for it, the battle against that annoyingly big insect would have been worse, since V’s intervention hadn’t been too useful until the man had seen fit to be some kind of help.

“We are making a stop in 20 minutes”, the driver announced after some time, “and then three more until reaching Hillside.”

“Good.”

V’s approving comment made Nero snort softly. The invoker really had a talent in occasionally talking as if he had been born to be obeyed. He was about to thank the man so that V hadn’t the last condescending word in the brief interchange when suddenly the driver cursed and stopped brusquely, causing Nero to end pressed against the man’s seat.

“What’s wrong?”

With his whole body in alert, Nero stood between the front seats to look to his left, as the man and V were doing, and his eyes opened wide when detecting in the distance a cloud of dark grey smoke.

“Jonah’s farm is around there”, the man babbled, obviously worried.

“Are you sure?”

The man nodded effusively.

“Y-Yeah, I have visited him a lot of times and I’m sure the smoke is coming from there.”

Nero looked with determination in front of him.

“Let’s go take a look.”

Nero felt V tensing next to him, and somehow expected that the invoker protested for the detour, but surprisingly he remained silent. It was good to know that the man’s heart wasn’t as cold as his attitude at least.

It took them around 10 minutes to reach the source of the smoke, the air surrounding them getting heavier and warmer as they got closer, and when finally the road made a turn that allowed them to have a clearer view of the farm, Nero gulped loudly, observing with his eyes open wide at the building completely set in fire.

“No…”, the driver muttered clearly in shock before beginning to mumble something unintelligible about Jonah and his family, who apparently were there too, which caused Nero to curse while rapidly walking to the back of the truck.

“Nero.”

He ignored V’s call and abandoned the vehicle from the back door. He stopped next to the car’s front, observing the burning building situated several meters away from them with his hands turned into fists, since his suspicions about demons being the culprits of the fire were confirmed when he distinguished the silhouettes of flying animals that didn’t belong to this world flying in circles over the house.

“They are probably winged— pyrobats”, V rectified at the last second, situating next to Nero while observing the farm with an imperturbable expression, “the fire is too intense to have been caused by anything else.”

Nero gritted his teeth and immediately began to walk towards the farm, but he was stopped when V stood on his way.

“It’s too late”, this one ignored the invoker and circled him to continue walking with his blood boiling in frustration and anger, but V grabbed his arm, “even if you face those demons, there is nothing we can do for that man and his family.”

“We don’t know that!”, Nero snapped, releasing his arm with a brusque movement, “some of them could still be alive. They could—”

“They are _dead_ , Nero”, V’s cutting, crude words made Nero’s heart sink, but also served to fuel his anger because how the hell could V be so calm about all that?, “and you will be too if you face them now.”

“You have been saying that during all the battles we’ve faced, and guess what? I’m still alive”, he snapped, causing V’s eyes to half-close, “so you can stay here and watch those people die without fucking moving that cane, but I’m going.”

Nero began to run faster towards the farm but he had just walked some meters when the ground under him began to tremble and suddenly Nightmare appeared under him, causing him to exhale a loud curse of surprise when feeling himself trapped between Nightmare’s big hands.

“V!”, he snarled, struggling to set himself free from the golem’s tight grip but his hands were on each side of his body, making impossible for him to try to reach for his sword or pistol, “fuck, V, put me down. _NOW_!”

Nero glared at the invoker. V’s tattoos had completely vanished, his hair had turned white, and his left arm was still raised in the air after having invoked the stone golem by snapping his fingers.

“I’m sorry, Nero”, V said even if his expression looked more angry than apologetic, “but I’m not allowing you to die yet.”

“ _V!_ ”, Nero struggled some more but it was useless and the golem kept walking towards the truck after V, carrying him effortlessly, “damn it, let me go! Let me try to do something! Damn it, V, _please_!”

But the invoker ignored all his demands, which gradually turned more and more like pleas. Without sparing even one look towards him, V looked at the golem and signaled with his eyes towards the inside of the truck. Nightmare threw Nero unceremoniously there, making him collapse with some sacks full of food supplies the truck was carrying. Exhaling a frustrated curse Nero tried to abandon the vehicle again just to be stopped by Shadow this time, who coiled around his upper body and legs preventing him from moving, like it had happened the previous day during his battle with V.

“Do you have a phone with you?”, he heard V say after entering the vehicle, his hair black again after having dismissed Nightmare.

“N-No”, the driver muttered, still in shock, which was surely the reason he had barely reacted when seeing V’s familiars appear out of nowhere neither the way Nero looked at the moment, “but there is one in the next stop.”

“Then take us there. You can call for the police and the firefighters when we arrive. That is the only thing we can do by now. Can you still drive?”

“Y-Yes, I think so.”

“Good.”

Nero’s teeth hurt for the way he was gritting them. He tried to roll on the truck’s floor but Shadow increased the grip around his body, keeping him there.

“Damn it, V, I’m not gonna forget this—”

Nero was forced to shut up when a new black tentacle enclosed around his mouth, keeping it shut.

“We’ll continue this conversation when we reach the next stop, Nero”, V looked back towards him with his green eyes shining in a way that contrasted with his apparent calm tone, “until then, try to put yourself together.”

The only thing Nero could do at the moment was to close his eyes shut and shouted a frustrated, muffled curse, while the truck resumed his way leaving the farm and the people inside burning in the distance.

* * *

“V…”, Griffon began while the invoker abandoned the copilot seat and closed the door of his side with more force than usual “V, are you sure it’s a good idea to…”

V used his last ounces of energy to make the pet come back to him, and while the pale driver approached with trembling steps the new gas station to call for help, he opened the back doors of the truck, entering next and stopping next to Nero’s lying form. After the first five minutes of leaving the farm behind, the boy seemed to have calmed down and had stopped shouting, but still V made sure to be in alert when he called Shadow back.

Despite his preparation though, he wasn’t fast enough to avoid Nero when this one stood up with impressive speed and lunged against him, pinning him against one of the truck’s walls by pressing his human arm on horizontal under his neck while keeping his activated mechanic one pointed at his face.

“You son of a bitch”, Nero spat, his clear eyes shining with fury but also sadness and impotence, “if we had done it together, those people...Shit, we could have saved some of them! But it was a bother, huh? Since it would delay our fucking journey you just chose to let them die—”

Nero’s sentence ended with a broken gasp when V reached for the place where Nero’s mechanic arm met flesh and dug his fingers on it with all the force he could gather, causing the young man to immediately release him while pressing his other hand against it, the piercing, blinding pain causing him to fall on his knees against his will.

“This has been the third time that you have ignored my warnings”, V began to talk with a fake calm tone that sounded a little labored because of the sudden impact of his back against the wall, “first, with Urizen; second, with those demons in the gas station; and finally, in that farm. And at this rate, if you do not use some common sense and begin to learn when you can actually fight, when you have to retire because there is _nothing_ to do, and also the limits of your strength, you are going to get _both_ of us killed. So, I think it is time you actually grow up, and accept that it is impossible to save everyone, or otherwise I do not see the point in collaborating with someone who takes all the available chances to put ourselves stupidly in danger.”

When V finished talking, a tense silence fell in the truck during which Nero didn’t say anything. And when he finally raised his face to look at him, V deduced what the boy was going to say before he actually said it.

“You know what, V? For once we agree on something”, he stood up, facing V again, “I don’t also see the point in collaborating with someone who lets people burn to death and doesn’t even feel guilty about it.”

Nero was obviously referring to the farmer and his family, but his words made V remember certain image of his past, of _that_ man’s past: the image of a house, a manor this time, engulfed by flames that extended to the garden outside, destroying everything in their way, until all that remained was dust, and painful memories that had completely determined that man’s fate, and also his.

“So, when we reach Hillside…”, Nero continued, not noticing the way V gulped subtly while coming back to reality, and this time it was the boy the one who approached his face to V until their noses were almost touching, “...we go separate ways. And if you don’t like it, you can try to throw your pets at me again, though I really doubt you even have the strength for it.”

V grabbed his cane with more force when Nero accurately deduced that some time would have to pass until he was able to properly fight without putting his health at risk. He waited for Nero to abandon the truck to sit on the box the boy had occupied before, leaving his cane against the wall before leaning his elbows on his knees, his hands interlaced between them.

Griffon manifested once again, and obviously V didn’t have the strength to call him back.

“It seems you were right, Griffon”, V let out a deep breath, looking at the flying bird with a humorless, tired smile, “we should probably begin to search for a better candidate when reaching the city.”

For once, the bird didn’t have anything to add.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, a new chapter of Nero and V being besties ^^U Though I promise their relation will improve from the next chapter onwards ;)


	4. (May 19) - More than a cold-hearted bastard

**_May 19 - 11:17 a.m._ **

“ _Wait, what do you mean you are coming back today?_ ”

Nero exhaled a sigh when hearing Kyrie’s confused question, while leaning on his right side against the column situated next to the inn counter, where the telephone of public use was.

“Thought you’d be happier with the news, since that reduces the possibilities of me getting into trouble.”

Nero wasn’t too surprised when his clearly forced joking tone didn’t fool Kyrie and worry kept being present in her next words.

“ _Nero, did something happen?_ ”

Exhaling another sigh Nero placed his left hand on his pocket, his tone becoming ruder without even noticing.

“Yeah, we just discovered that we don’t make a good team: V doesn’t give a shit about anything that isn’t related to ‘his mission’ and I’m tired of it. That’s all.”

“ _So you had a disagreement then?_ ”

Nero thought the word ‘disagreement’ fell a little short to describe what happened, but not wanting to worry Kyrie more he nodded.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“ _And are you sure there isn’t any way for you to solve your differences?_ ”

‘Without killing each other?’, Nero thought, remembering all his interactions with V up till than point, including the way they had ignored each other until reaching Hillside, and also after it, once they both had rented their individual rooms and Nero had locked himself in, glad that the invoker was finally out of his sight.

“Nope, I’m pretty sure we can’t. So I’m taking the first train to Fortuna, since there I can focus on training and on doing something useful instead of having to stand that high-and-mighty bastard.”

“Was the room of your liking, sir?”

Nero turned around to look at the woman sitting at the counter, not sure if the innkeeper was addressing him, and his eyes opened a little wider when seeing V standing right there, his calm stance not betraying if he had actually heard what Nero had said about him (not that Nero minded if that was the case though).

“A little noisy but overall acceptable, thank you”, the invoker said, completely ignoring Nero’s presence even if they were less than a meter away from each other, “could you please tell me what would be the fastest way to reach the city’s Antique Library?”

The innkeeper lent V a booklet and circled with a ball pen the fastest route. The invoker thanked the woman again and, without sparing a single glance towards Nero, abandoned the place. Nero realized at that moment that he had been ignoring Kyrie since noticing V, and that the poor woman thought that the connection had been cut and was about to hang up, which made him insult himself internally for giving more importance to that bastard than to his girlfriend.

“Sorry, Kyrie, I’m still here. Look, I gotta go now because I think the next train leaves at...12.00?”, he saw the innkeeper nod in agreement so he smiled at her and continued, “so I should be going to the station. See you this afternoon.”

“ _..._ ”

“...Because you are in Fortuna, right?”

“ _W-Well, about that…_ ”

“Wait, you are still in Red Grave!?”

“ _Y-Yes, but I was planning to come back this same day, I swear!_ ”

Nero exhaled a long, defeated sigh, but a small smile played at his lips while Kyrie continued with the horrible excuses. He really loved her, but nevertheless he planned to tell her a couple of things about who was the one in breaking promises this time.

* * *

“Uhm, V?”

V turned towards Griffon raising an eyebrow, not used to hear the bird sounding hesitant.

He had just stepped down the bus the woman at the inn had recommended him to take and, out of habit, he had chosen the least  busy areas of the town to continue walking to his destination, even if Hillside was pretty small to the point it could be considered more like a big village than a proper city, and consequently there weren’t many people around.

“Yes?”

The bird stopped in the middle of the alley they were currently crossing to land on the top of a trash can. The familiar exhaled a disgusting ‘ _Urgh_ ’ when his legs ended a little sticky and after cursing about humans being worse than pigs he proceeded to talk.

“Are you sure parting ways with that kid was a good move?”

V automatically tensed when the bird mentioned Nero.

“Well, considering his problematic tendency of throwing himself into danger together with his complete inability to listen to reason, I believe it’s safer for us not to associate ourselves more with him. So, answering your question: yes, I am really sure.”

V thought the conversation had finished and tried to continue walking, but Griffon didn’t move.

“But you thought he had potential, right?”

V rolled his eyes, backtracked and leaned both of his hands on his cane, facing Griffon again while talking with a patient tone.

“Yes, and I still think he has. But the effort required to deal with him doesn’t compensate with the potential benefits we could obtain from our collaboration, so I think it’s better to devote our strength on something more productive and way less tiring.”

V tried to resume his walk a second time but, once again, he stopped this time with annoyance when the bird didn’t make any attempt of following him. He was about to force the bird to come back when the familiar spoke again.

“Okay, and one last, tiny detail”, Griffon took a breath before talking with a curious tone, “have you thought that maybe that kid is so annoying because of you?”

V frowned while slowly raising his chin, looking at Griffon suspiciously from above.

“Could you elaborate on that?”

Griffon would have probably gulped in case of being able to do so, probably detecting his owner’s light anger, but when he talked his tone sounded as loud and sure as usual.

“I mean that you aren’t the easiest guy to treat either, V. So maybe that kid was so stubborn because you didn’t leave him any other option.”

V blinked, his mouth falling a little half-opened in disbelief. Being aware of the expression he was making, he rapidly closed it again before speaking with a tone that bordered sounding outraged.

“Are you saying it is my fault that he was such a… _knucklehead_?”

“Nope, I’m pretty sure that being a knucklehead is something intrinsic in that boy. What I’m saying is that you don’t know how to deal with him, and that provokes the kid behaves more recklessly than usual.”

“Well, my apologies for not being sensitive enough, but as far as I’m concerned the only thing I have done until now is to prevent that boy from ending killed.”

“ _That_ is the problem!”

V's expression changed from annoyed to lightly confused.

“What do you mean?”

“That attitude of ‘ _I’m the clever one around and you will be dead if you don’t listen to me.’_ ”

V half-closed his eyes briefly when Griffon poorly imitated his voice.

“I fail to see the inaccuracy in that statement.”

“Yeah, you right, there isn’t any, but there is a difference between knowing it and telling the kid about it.”

“I do not recall having told Nero about his lack of intelligence either.”

Griffon huffed.

“Well, you did: all - the - time. Because yeah, we both agree that the kid does not shine for his common sense, but he is no dumb either. And also…”, Griffon began to fly again to be at V’s eyes level, “...maybe giving orders and expecting that everyone obeys them has worked for you until now... or well, not for you _you_ but...well, you know what I mean. _But_ some people are too uncontrollable for that to work. And this kid, I would bet my beak that he is one of those that the more you try to order them around, the less they will listen to you. He’s too proud and stubborn for that”, the bird tilted his head to the side, “sounds familiar?”

V averted his gaze from Griffon, getting lost in his thoughts while analyzing the familiar’s words, which made him have another flashback involving a small kid this time with grey hair, who never gave up no matter how many times he lost. A kid that later became a young man who still refused to listen to reason and who kept fighting while intruding in other people’s lives even when his help wasn’t asked, and who surely would keep behaving in such an annoying way no matter how many years passed.

“Well, certainly the boy is quite similar to Dante in certain aspects”, V stopped talking when Griffon exhaled a boisterous laugh, “...what?”

“I wasn’t talking about Dante.”

V’s eyes opened wide for a moment. He exhaled a soft snort, refusing to acknowledge the preposterous thought of Nero and him being remotely similar.

“Anyway, as I was saying, it is certainly true that certain people cannot be submitted by force”, he tapped with his thumb over the top of his cane and continued with a reluctant tone, “and you may have a point when commenting that my way of approaching Nero may not have been the most adequate...”

“Pfff. It clearly wasn’t after seeing the result.”

“But what’s done is done”, his tone became more cutting, “and I stand by my view that Nero is too unpredictable for our purposes, so I prefer to find someone else way less childish if possible and whose impulses do not take the lead more times than not.”

This time V began to walk while leaving the bird behind, and when the familiar eventually followed after him, he wondered why he hadn’t done that before instead of listening to Griffon’s annoying nonsense.

“Hey, V.”

Deep inside, V knew he was going to regret answering to Griffon’s call.

“Yes?”

A barely contained laugh could be sensed in the bird’s next words.

“Don’t you think it’s childish too _not_ going after the kid only because you don’t want to admit that—!”

V didn’t hesitate in summoning the bird back with a little more energy than necessary, the bird’s annoyed shout putting a triumphant little smile in his face that kept in place until they finally reached the library.

It was safe to assume that the presence of Urizen’s roots on the outskirts of Hillside was not something aleatory, and even if he still didn’t know what the exact purpose of the roots were besides attacking the people reckless enough to approach them, the fact that such a remote city had arisen Urizen’s interest had to mean something, and he planned to discover what it was.

The library was surprisingly big and well organized, so V didn’t have major trouble in finding the section devoted to the history of the city, situated in one of the lateral rooms. Unlike the main room where there were half-of-dozen of people wandering around, the [room](https://c.wallhere.com/photos/50/8d/1920x1080_px_books_Chair_Fisheye_Lens_library_Lights_Shelves-1267727.jpg!d) V entered was practically empty, and in fact V didn’t notice there was a little girl reading in a corner until he had already summoned Griffon, which caused the girl’s brown eyes to open at their maximum.

“Wow!”, the girl seemed to remember at that moment she had to remain silent and snapped a hand against her mouth, continuing talking in such an exaggerated low tone that V had practically to read her lips to understand her, “you have a very nice cockatoo.”

“Cockatoo?!”

Griffon’s deeply offended squawk caused the girl to exclaim a new ‘ _Wow_!’ while V’s smirk widened, amused by the bird’s obvious annoyance.

“And he can talk. How cool!”

“Yes, he can”, V intervened when Griffon was about to insult the girl, “but theoretically pets are not allowed here, so would you keep the secret?”

The girl nodded effusively and made a gesture of closing her own lips, which made V show a small approving grin. While the girl kept unconsciously making Griffon uncomfortable by staring at him with the lack of subtleness typical of small children, V began to search in the shelves by distractedly passing his long fingers across the book covers, his green eyes rapidly scanning the titles with precision.

It took him almost 15 minutes of examining the shelves to find a book that finally caught his attention. Crouching on the floor V carefully extracted the book from its place. It was pretty old and smaller than the rest that surrounded them, and after softly removing the dust that had gathered there, he carefully opened it.

“I read that one already.”

V turned his face towards the girl again when this one suddenly spoke, leaning her crossed arms over the table and balancing his body back and forward with interest.

“I liked it but it’s for children”, she said with a tone that wanted to indicate that she wasn’t a child anymore, even if she couldn’t be more than 8 years old, “it’s about fairies, and demons, and other things that don’t exist.”

While Griffon exhaled a loud ‘ _pffff_ ’, V chuckled to himself when hearing the kid’s convinced tone, straightening his position again while sustaining the recently discovered book in one hand and the cane in the other.

“Really? And how are you so sure that those ‘things’ do not exist?”

The girl’s confident expression disappeared when hearing V’s completely serious question.

“W-Well, my mother always says so”, she gulped loudly, looking at V with even more interest while talking again with a secretive tone, “is she wrong?”

V was about to answer the kid with a probably too sincere answer when he tensed, suddenly feeling a demonic aura settling in the until then calm library.

Fortunately, his lack of strength was compensated by sharper instincts than usual, which allowed him to react in time and move the girl away in the exact moment in which the window of the room was scattered into pieces, because of a long scythe that fell in the place she had been standing half-a-second ago.

The girl exhaled a panicked high-pitched cry and hid behind V when three skeletal demons dressed in black, torn off tunics entered through the broken window, one of them being the owner of the weapon that almost caused her death. V also heard panicked shouts coming from outside the building, indicating that probably there were more demons waiting for them outside.

“Damn it, what are these things doing here?!”, Griffon squawked while beginning to throw red shots of lightning at the cainas.

V observed briefly the book he still had in his hand and after keeping it in the back pocket of his trousers he rapidly extracted his poetry book, feeling the girl behind him grabbing his coat tightly, trembling in fear.

“I have the feeling they want to stop us from investigating further.”

He pointed his cane forward so that Griffon unleashed a semi-circular shock attack that managed to harm the enemies, though it was not enough to eliminate them. By then the few people that were in the library had left running in fear, so they were the only ones who remained in the place together with the girl. V was thinking what would be the best way to take the girl out of there, so that she stopped hindering his already limited movements in battle, when the door of the room was blown into pieces and a behemoth entered, immediately beginning to lunge against them.

“ _Crap_!”

He could not have expressed it better, V thought in self-mockery when Griffon shouted that. He managed to invoke Shadow just in front of him and the girl when the surprisingly fast demon was about to reach them. However, the force of the attack forced them to end pressed against one of the shelves, cutting their way out.

“‘ _And their sun does never shine_ ”, V began to recite as clearly and fast as possible, positioning himself in front of the girl who was now curling in the floor with her legs flexed against her chest and covering her ears with her hands while sobbing softly, “‘ _and their fields are bleak and bare/and their ways are fill'd with thorns./It is eternal winter there._ ’”

Upgrading Shadow’s attack allowed the panther to slowly begin to push the demon back while Griffon kept dealing with the new group of demons that had replaced the fallen ones, composed now of two more lethal and unpredictable antenoras, whose cleavers were more dangerous and difficult to avoid than the cainas’ scythes. A simple look told V that the girl was paralyzed in fear and that she would be unable to move from there no matter what she was told, which made him exhale a short sigh before making his mind.

“Shadow, cover her.”

“Wait, V, what are you—?!”

Ignoring the the bird’s astonished comment V abandoned Shadow’s protection and moved away from the corner. Immediately, the behemoth attention shifted from the girl and with a growl it began to run after him, moving his tentacled tongues in the process with the clear intention of hitting V with them. He stood impassible as the demon continued his deathly approach, beginning to extend his left arm so that it ended in a horizontal and perpendicular position to his body, while hoping not having to pay for the library's destruction.

* * *

“ _Attention all passengers going to Fortuna. We kindly remind you that the train will perform a brief stop before continuing the trip, so we recommend you to board it as soon as it arrives. Thank you._ ”

Nero yawned from the bench where he was waiting for the train and crossed his legs by placing his right ankle over his left knee. He interlaced his fingers behind his head before leaning more against the wall situated behind him, trying to ignore the annoying sensation that had settled on his body now that he was finally leaving Hillside.

He exhaled a frustrated sigh. Damn, it was V’s fault that he was now hesitating: the man looked so fucking convinced that ‘his mission’ would allow them to defeat that bastard that the moment Nero was left alone with his thoughts, he began to have doubts about leaving. And damn, he knew it was stupid to feel as if he was abandoning when he nevertheless planned to continue getting ready to face Urizen. After all he had only decided to part ways with V, not to stop fighting and training to become better, so there was zero reason to feel that way.

Trying to push away that annoying feeling of defeat, Nero decided to focus on the small TV that had been installed in one of the columns that surrounded the station. He immediately regretted doing so when realizing that the news was talking about the farm that was set on fire the previous day.

“. _..it is not clear yet what could cause such a fire that forced the firefighters to spend hours trying to contain it_ ”, the anchor was saying, “ _they discard the theory of an arson attack since they did not find any clue that seemed to indicate it was provoked, and also because the source of the fire wasn’t generated at the ground level but from an unknown source above the farm_.”

Nero gritted his teeth and stopped paying attention to the news, remembering the image of those gigantic bats flying over the house. Damn, if he just had been able to go there, if V hadn’t stopped him, maybe...

“... _also, it is a still mystery how the four members of the Hawkins family died_ ”, Nero’s attention was drawn to the TV again, “ _it has been confirmed today that all the members had already passed away by when the fire spread. As we speak, the police are investigating the cause of their death, which just adds a new mystery to this tragedy that has affected the whole Hillside..._ ”

Nero stopped paying attention once again, the uncomfortable feeling that had been accompanying him during the last half-an-hour increasing even more.

So eventually V had been right: by when they arrived to the farm, the entire family was already dead. He exhaled a frustrated groan, hitting the back of his head with the wall behind him. But still, that didn’t change the fact that V was a total jerk, or that they were like water and oil, and considering that V seemed to be perfectly an ease with having parted ways like hell if he was going to waste more time in thinking about the invoker one minute longer.

“Hey, what is that!?”

Nero’s attention immediately focused on the passenger who had shouted that while signaling at some point in the sky. He followed the direction the man was signaling and his eyes opened wide when managing to pinpoint a small portal that had appeared in the distance, from which something similar to a small meteorite was launched towards some point of the city.

He wasn’t sure what that could be, but he had the feeling that in case of still having his Devil Bringer with him, this one would have shined after witnessing that, so without the least hint of hesitation he began to run towards the place where that thing had fallen, hoping to be able to change his now unused train ticket for a later hour.

Thanks to the city not being particularly big and to his endurance, product of the training he had gone through since being a kid, Nero reached the area where the mini meteorite had impacted in less than fifteen minutes. His suspicions about demons being involved in the whole thing were confirmed when at some point he saw people running in the opposite direction where he was going, indicating him the exact source of the chaos.

Nero had barely time to notice that one of the buildings had been pretty damaged and that there were several demons surrounding it because, at that moment, a violet beam was shot from inside the building, hitting the cainas that were trying to enter the library.

Wait, the _library_?

“Fuck”, he cursed to himself, realization finally hitting him while beginning to run towards the now half-demolished building, activating Red Queen in the process. He rapidly slashed the demons he came across, and after avoiding a couple of attack coming from one of the antenoras he slipped inside the library.

His eyes opened wide for the sight that welcomed him when entering. He had been right when guessing V was there and that the small portal that had appeared was probably Nightmare being invoked, but it was the first time that he saw the invoker standing over the golem’s back in order to better control his attacks, and also to avoid being hit by the massive crocodile-like demon that covered most part of the main room.

Nero didn’t have time to keep still for too long though, since at that moment the antenoras that he had avoided managed to slip inside and proceeded to attack them, forcing him to counter-attack by using a combination of his sword and his pistol, since his arm was still a little sore for overusing it the previous day with those empusas.

“Hey, V, look! We have help!”

Griffon shouted that when Nero had just finished one of the demons, which gave him a little time to throw a glance towards V, finding the invoker staring at him in disbelief.

“Nero? Why are you still here?”

Nero huffed, easily avoiding a caina’s attack and managing to grab him from behind in order to give a lethal shot just in his temple.

“Lost my train”, it wasn’t a lie, not entirely, “and I also saw Nightmare being invoked so I thought—”

He had to stop talking for the sake of avoiding a new scythe attack, which forced him to jump to the side while shooting with his pistol.

“Okay, why don’t we talk about this when these assholes are dead?”, Nero suggested, beginning to approach the bigger demon to offer support after Nightmare jumped on him to punch him with both fists. The chains surrounding the monster’s body broke because of the impact, which was good because from then on the attacks would be more effective, but would also allow it to move faster, which definitely wasn’t good.

“For once, I agree”, V commented, getting a better grip at Nightmare when this one began to swing his arms from one side to the other to continue hitting the demon, “I can handle the behemoth. You go to the other room and help Shadow.”

This time Nero didn’t even protest for V’s commanding tone while rapidly approaching the next room. He frowned confused when seeing that Shadow was simply standing in a corner while occasionally throwing spikes to the demons who tried to approach. Nero finished slaying down the cainas that remained in the room before approaching the familiar, and his eyes opened wide in surprise when realizing there was a little girl there, trembling like a leaf.

“The man with the bird…”, she hiccupped, looking up at Nero with terrified eyes, “...is he okay?”

Realization bathed Nero’s expression when hearing the girl’s apprehensive question. Now he understood why Shadow wasn’t joining Griffon and Nightmare in the battle: V had left the panther there in order to protect that girl.

However, before he could assimilate the striking news of V being more than a cold-hearted bastard, Nero rapidly knelt and covered the girl with his body when one of the walls of the other side trembled so much that one of the closer shelves was about to fall on the floor. Refusing to let the girl in such a dangerous place for any second longer, Nero took her in his arms and rapidly left the building through the same broken windows the cainas had used before, while Shadow finally returned to his owner.

Carrying the girl in his arms with both her hands and legs hooking around him, Nero ran his good meters until he considered he was far away enough from the library. He then left the girl on the ground, in an area were several people had gathered to observe what was happening in the library while talking pictures. Nero had to bite his tongue not to tell them to fuck off and decided to focus on the now more calmed girl instead.

“Okay, here you’ll be safe for now”, Nero offered her a brief encouraging smile and was about to leave when she talked.

“Are you going to save your friend?”

Nero guessed that it wasn’t the moment to enter in technicalities and nodded with confidence.

“Yeah. I’m saving my friend.”

* * *

With the next attack of the behemoth, Nightmare vanished against V’s will, causing him to fall on the floor without having time to land properly on it. Hissing in pain for the impact, V could barely roll on it to avoid being stepped on by the demon.

“Crap crap _crap_!”, Griffon rapidly shoot at the demon, trying to move him away from V, but the shots were too weak so with a curse the bird flew towards the invoker to grab his arm in order to take him to the farthest point of the room, since the behemoth was in the middle of it, blocking the exit.

“Shit, V, don’t tell me we came alive from Urizen to die here!!”

V exhaled a short, tired chuckle from the floor where he was kneeling. His breathing was heavy and a dark aura surrounded his vision for the excessive use of his power.

“It would be certainly ironic, don’t you think?”

It took all his strength to lean on the cane to be standing again. With every muscle of his body feeling sore, V raised the cane in front of him and began to recite by memory some verses in order to upgrade Shadow and Griffon’s attacks once again.

V didn’t get to spell them fully though, since at that moment the behemoth began to attack with its tongues at the familiars, forcing them to enter in automatic protection by turning into two magic spheres. Exhaling a deep breath V heavily leaned against the wall, knowing it would be too imprudent to approach Shadow and Griffon to accelerate the process of recovering from their dormant state. Just the behemoth and him remained in the room and the demon was growling and moving back and forth, with the clear intention of lunging against him again.

He exhaled a short, self-mocking chuckle when his legs didn’t sustain him and he ended sitting on the floor. He wondered what Vergil would think for being about to die in the hands of a pathetic, lesser demon for having invested so much power in protecting a weak human. But he didn’t regret it. After all, he had sworn to himself that he would stop Urizen, which also implied to prevent as many unnecessary killings as possible, because otherwise perhaps by when they faced Urizen, there wouldn’t be anything remaining to protect. Besides, considering his current situation, maybe that girl’s life was the only one which he managed to save.

While feeling himself about to faint at any second, V used all the energy he had left to grab with both of his hands the cane to situate it in front of him, in a last attempt to impale the demon’s mouth with it when this one approached him at a vertiginous speed. However, before the piercing end of the cane got to touch the behemoth, the demon suddenly growled in pain and stopped in his tracks just when the nauseating smell coming from his opened mouth was reaching V.

He didn't understand why the demon began to swing his body from one side to the other, as if trying to shake something off him. From where he was sitting it was impossible to see what could be causing the demon to behave in such a way, but when the behemoth finally exhaled his last smelly breath and fell in the ground, V was finally able to pinpoint the culprit of the demon’s death, who wasn’t no one else than Nero, who had jumped over the behemoth when this one was distracted with him in order to bury his sword on its back with all his might.

“Hey”, Nero exhaled, groaning a little for the effort of recovering his sword to lean it against his shoulders, signaling at V with his chin, “I thought you could handle it.”

The last thing V remembered to see before finally losing consciousness was Nero’s annoyingly wide smirk.

* * *

When V opened his eyes again, he was lying on a bed different from the one where he had slept the previous night. He sat up on it carefully, feeling still a little dizzy, and checked the hour on the round clock hanging on the opposite wall. It was 8.46, which meant that he had been unconscious for more than 8 hours. At least the long nap had allowed him to recover almost completely, he thought while standing up from the bed. He reached for his cane and abandoned the small guest room, beginning to climb down the stairs that lead to the first floor.

He was half through them when he heard voices coming from the first floor. One of them belonged to the small girl of the library, which made him deduce that he was currently in her home, while the second one caused him to tense against his will. As it usually happened when detecting a relevant change of mood in him, Griffon appeared next to him at that moment.

“Jeez, that was close, V!”, he protested, “if it wasn’t for the boy we wouldn’t be here right now, you know?”

V remained silent while approaching the source of the voices, who resulted to be the living room. Yes, of course he _did_ know that Nero had played an important role in saving his life in the library, and for that reason he got ready to stand the boy’s cockiness when facing him.

Exhaling a short breath V entered the [small living](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/85/8f/a8858fcb4d2297cea7675f5727a686a6.jpg) room, and he was slightly startled when Nero let out a frustrated curse at the same time than the girl laughed in triumph from the sofa where they both sitting, playing some kind of cards game.

“Damn, I lost again!”, Nero exclaimed, throwing the cards against the table in a too theatrical gesture that caused the girl to look even prouder.

“Hehehe: I told you I’m the master at poker!”

“Shit, I’m not going to give up so easily”, Nero straightened his position again and looked at the girl with a determined smirk, “once more!”

The girl giggled and was about to shuffle the cards again when she noticed V in the door. She stood still for some seconds but almost immediately she left the cards in the small table to run towards him, surprising the invoker with a tight hug. V froze in place, leaving his arms a little separated from the sides of his body without knowing very well what to do with them, since he wasn’t used to such effusive actions. He glared at Griffon when this one began to laugh loudly, and then at Nero when seeing the young man about to do the same.

“Do you have something to say?”, V inquired with a deathly serious tone that just caused Griffon to laugh louder and Nero to shake his head with a small smile in his face.

“Nothing”, the boy stood up as well, crossing his arms, “but just for the record kids don’t bite, you know?”

V half-closed his eyes and was about to sarcastically argue back against his comment when the girl released him and looked at him, blushing slightly.

“T-Thank you very much for saving me.”

V’s eyes opened slightly more for a moment before giving a short, awkward nod.

“You are welcome. Although I think you should thank him instead.”

The girl exhaled a loud gasp when Shadow suddenly appeared behind V. With careful steps the girl approached the panther and extended her arm towards the feline’s head. Shadow observed the girl, then looked at V, and when this one imperceptibly nodded the panther softly rubbed his head against the girl’s hand, making this one laugh before beginning to pet the familiar’s head happily.

V then turned to look at Nero again, finding the boy looking between the girl and him with stupor.

“That way she won’t bother us for a while.”

Despite his explanation was pretty valid, Nero snorted, as if he wasn’t convinced.

“Yeah, sure”, Nero reached for a couple of books that were lying on the table, “these are yours, by the way. I took them after bringing you here.”

V realized then that the books Nero was handling him were his poetry book together with the one he found at the library.

“Thank you”, he could physically feel the way Griffon was inquisitively looking at him from his left, so after a short pause he continued talking, fixing his eyes in Nero’s ones, “for keeping the books safe. And for your help in the library.”

Since V was expecting Nero to make a (perhaps deserved) comment about him being about to get killed, it was his turn to blink surprised when the boy simply shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess we are tied now”, the boy frowned when realizing that V was looking at him as if expecting him to say something else, “what?”

V simply shook his head softly, stopping looking at Nero so inquisitively.

“Nothing”, he placed the poetry book back inside his clothes while keeping sustaining the other. Nero, again, didn’t look very convinced with his answer but seemed to accept it before talking with a too casual tone.

“So...why is that book so special? I have taken a look at it and it seems to be a kid’s book so—”

“ _SSSHH_!”

This time, not just V but also Nero jumped startled when suddenly the girl hushed at them.

“Don’t say it’s a kids book!”, she whispered, enclosing his arms around Shadow’s neck while looking around her with a scared look, “those monsters appeared when I said that, so…”, she placed her index against her mouth with an effusive gesture that made Nero exhale a soft chuckle.

“Don’t worry, Anna: those monsters aren’t coming back. And if they do, we will protect you again.”

The comment made Anna exhale a relieved sigh before continuing petting Shadow, who simply yawned completely at ease, but something in Nero’s words had caught V’s attention.

“‘We’?”

Even if it was subtle, V noticed how Nero gulped before talking again.

“Yeah, well…”, the boy cleared his throat, crossing his arms again, “...I’ve been thinking and maybe we could try again. Working together I mean.”

Again, Griffon was looking at him not very subtly, clearly wanting him to accept the boy’s petition, but V didn’t do it immediately.

“Are you really sure you want to keep working with a high-and-mighty bastard?”

V couldn’t help to think with amusement that the way Nero’s mouth fell opened when hearing his completely calm comment was rather worth it.

“So you heard it.”

“You were not talking precisely low.”

Nero snorted a short laugh before scratching the back of his head, looking at V again before talking with irony.

“Well, regarding the high-and-mighty bastard, I don’t think he is _that_ bad if he risks his life for saving a kid”, Nero’s tone became more serious, “so if he is down for it, I don’t mind continuing with this trip for a little longer.”

V realized he had to be more tired than he thought because the light relief that invaded him was completely out of place, which probably caused him to talk a little more arrogantly than he planned.

“Alright. I also think that resuming our collaboration may actually be beneficial. But…”, V's tone acquired a hint of warning, “...I really hope that, from now on, you learn to refrain your impulses of unnecessarily embracing danger.”

Nero’s expression was also serious when nodding.

“I’ll try, as long as you don’t use your pets against me ever again, and as long as we _both_ decide the next steps to take”, Nero offered his right hand to V, “do we have a new deal?”

V stared at Nero for some seconds before diverting his eyes to the boy’s mechanical hand, and it seemed that his light hesitation was too much for Griffon, because the bird groaned in annoyance before snapping the next words.

“Come on, V, stop playing hard to get: it’s obvious you want the boy back.”

For the way Nero’s eyes opened wide it seemed that V hadn’t been the only one in finding curious the choice of Griffon’s words. V wasn’t sure if the bird had said them on purpose or not, but he nevertheless planned to have a couple of words with the familiar about it.

“We have a new deal”, V eventually said as if Griffon hadn’t talked in the first place. He accepted Nero’s hand to shake it, which made the boy show the hint of a small smile.

“Alright then”, Nero signaled V’s book with his eyes, “and now the book. We risked our asses for it so I hope it’s worth it.”

Once again, Nero’s petition was interrupted when the door of the house opened and a woman in her forties entered. Anna immediately exhaled a loud ‘ _Mum_!’ and went to hug her, but by then V had already deduced who that woman was, since the warm smile she offered him spoke volumes about the gratitude she felt towards him for having protected her kid.

It felt kind of strange and nice to be looked at in such a way instead of with fear or hate, but V knew he mustn’t get affected by it. One thing was that he wanted to stop Urizen and that he disagreed with the way the demon indiscriminately killed, and another one that he decided to fall for the emotions that had brought Vergil to his downfall. Because of the older son of Sparda's memories, V was perfectly aware of how difficult to control certain feelings could be, and against what many people could seem to think, negative emotions weren’t the most dangerous or the ones who caused the most pain, but just the opposite ones, and his body was already weak enough as it was. He couldn’t allow himself to be weakened by something else.

“Oh, so you are awake already. Nice”, the woman greeted with a soft tone, looking at V first and then at Nero, “it will just take me a moment to leave everything ready.”

The woman disappeared towards the kitchen and Anna came back to the room, stopping in front of Nero and V expectantly.

“We can play a last card game before having dinner!”

When seeing Nero lamely falling for Anna’s fake puppy eyes, V exhaled a resigned sigh while taking a seat in one of the armchairs to proceed reading the recently found book, refusing to join them in their play and reluctantly accepting that the explanation of that book’s importance would have to wait until later that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they are working together again! :D  
> I don't think it's a surprise but for now on get ready for heavy denial coming from the two parts :P


	5. (May 20) - 'Besties'

**_May 20 - 0:11 a.m._ **

V exhaled a relieved sigh when Nero and him were finally released to come back to the small guest room where he had been sleeping before. Honestly, he wasn’t a father and it wasn’t in his plans to ever become one, but it was evident that allowing a kid to be awake until past midnight when she had to go to school the next day was pretty irresponsible.

“At last”, he muttered aloud without realizing, causing Nero to exhale a soft snort while closing the door behind them.

“Man, you really suck at socializing.”

“I beg your pardon?”, V raised an eyebrow with curiosity, following Nero with his eyes while this one sat on the bed with a small jump, causing the furniture to creak for the excessive impulse.

“I mean you looked like a damn statue during dinner”, Nero leaned against the wall, his right mechanical arm across his stomach while signaling with the other at the door, “and that poor kid, she was in awe with you, trying to make conversation while you practically ignored her.”

“Ignore her? As far as I’m concerned, I have answered to all her questions no matter how annoying they were.”

“Yeah, with monosyllables and hums. Even that panther of yours would be more eloquent.”

V sighed with patience while approaching the bed to sit next to Nero.

“Well, if I had known that saving that child would later demand to play the clown for her—”

“Okay, never mind”, Nero interrupted him rapidly in a light defeated tone, probably not wanting to hear the ending of his sentence.

V grinned briefly, glad to put aside the irrelevant topic of his lack of interest in children for the sake of discussing more important matters. After leaving his cane leaning at the foot of the bed, he opened the book he had taken from the library. He turned towards Nero to begin to speak and was a little startled when seeing the boy already there, looking with curiosity at the opened book from a closer distance than he would have preferred, since the [bed](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c8/1c/95/c81c95897488833ed58e6e376430032c.jpg) wasn’t precisely big which caused their opposite arms to be practically in contact.

“So, you say that _that boo_ k has the key to beat Urizen?”

V couldn’t help to exhale an amused chuckle when hearing Nero’s question.

“That would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?”, when seeing Nero’s confused expression, he continued, “unfortunately, I doubt that we can find a solution so easily. But this book could allow us to learn more information about his plans.”

Nero looked with a skeptic expression at the children drawings that covered the book, as a visual help to explain the different monsters that could be found around Hillside. What Nero was thinking was evident, so V continued talking.

“Apart from the unnecessary colorful art…”, V passed the book to Nero, “...do you see something that strikes your attention?”

Nero looked at the book and then an V with suspicion, as if he was making sure the question wasn’t rhetorical and V wasn’t only trying to show how clever he was. When seeing that V had asked seriously, he grabbed the book and began to pass the pages with a gentleness that took V by surprise. It seemed he had been too quick in assuming that Nero was just a brute whose hands could only handle weapons.

“Well, the descriptions of the monsters are not half-bad”, Nero said after some seconds, his eyes opening slightly more while stopping in a rather accurate description of a Chimera, “actually, they are pretty good.”

“Precisely”, V didn’t let it show that he was actually impressed that Nero had noticed it so fast, “also, as you can see, the habitat of most part of the creatures mentioned in this book correspond to forests. And Hillside is practically surrounded by those.”

Nero frowned, looking at V with curiosity.

“Are you saying that the person who wrote this knew that demons exist?”

V shrugged softly.

“Taking into consideration the details this book provides, it is a possibility.”

“But if they wanted to document it, why the hell did they do it as a children book?”

“Well, my guess is that the editor thought the author’s stories were pure fiction, and that the writer probably agreed on publishing it that way if the remaining option consisted of not being published it at all.”

Nero huffed, returning the book to V.

“Some people are fucking narrow-minded.”

“Well…”, V stored the book in the inner pocket of his coat, “...it is a fact that people are prone to ignore what goes against their beliefs, even when such a reality appears in front of their eyes.”

Nero huffed.

“Come on now. Maybe the people of Hillside didn’t know that demons existed, but there’s no way that the ones who were at the library today and saw them don’t believe it now.”

“Oh, they will. For a while. But then the government will intervene and everything will eventually have a really plausible explanation that will hide the knowledge of the Underworld actually existing.”

Nero looked at him in disbelief.

“Okay, and how the hell will they explain the attack of that Bafemot?”

“Behemoth.”

“Yeah, _that_. Because there were people taking pictures, and the library ended completely destroyed.”

“Easy: they will say it was a new specimen of crocodile that had been spotted in the surroundings.”

“And the damn skeletons?”

“A band of criminals going incognito.”

Nero began to laugh even if he had talked completely seriously.

“I would like to see how they are going to try to explain what is happening in Red Grave then, because I don’t know who will buy the explanation of Urizen being a big guy cosplaying.”

V had to suppress a small chuckle when hearing such a description of Urizen. At that moment he realized that, somehow, they had diverted from the initial purpose of the conversation, so after discreetly clearing his throat he made sure to reconduct it.

“Anyway, what concerns us right now is the fact that this book indicates the existence of demons around.”

Nero nodded slowly.

“And that is important because…”

V bit back a grin when it was evident Nero didn’t see the connection with their mission.

“Because first, the apparition of a major demon always attracts the presence lesser ones,  which means that the demons represented in this book may have invaded the forests again; and second, the timing of the demons of the library was too perfect: they appeared at the exact moment in which I found this book, so I believe that if we find them, there is a possibility of obtaining more information about Urizen and his purpose.”

Nero hummed, crossing his arms.

“Okay, so that means that our next stop is the forest around Hillside?”

V shook his head briefly.

“Almost but not quite: I think we should pay a new visit to the library.”

“The library?”, Nero repeated, “but the building has been practically destroyed.”

“I’m aware, Nero. I was there when it happened”, Nero seemed to think that he deserved the reply because this time he didn’t look as bothered as the other times V used sarcasm with him, “but the information of where these demons can be found is too vague, and the forest area surrounding Hillside is quite big. However, the author may have written something else that allows us narrow the search area.”

Nero nodded to himself.

“And if they didn’t?”

“Then I’m afraid we will spend some time walking through those forests, which is something that I would greatly prefer to avoid.”

Nero snorted, leaning back against the wall again.

“Yeah, I bet you do.”

V frowned, turning his head back to look at Nero.

“What are you insinuating?”

Nero exaggeratedly scanned V from head to toe with his eyes.

“That you don’t look like a country-boy at all.”

V blinked once.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Nero rolled his eyes, letting V know that his comment hadn’t been intended to sound as such. V was about to establish the meeting hour for the next day when the door of the room began to open slowly and Anna’s head slipped in.

“You still awake?”

‘Obviously we are’, V thought, but Nero talked before he could say anything.

“Yep, but I think you shouldn’t.”

Anna simply smiled when hearing Nero’s fake reproaching tone and slipped inside without hesitation. She was already dressed in her pajama while carrying some kind of stuffed toy of unrecognizable shape. The girl stopped in front of the bed and looked at them alternatively.

“You are leaving tomorrow, right?”

V didn’t understand why the girl sounded so sad when she barely knew them. Children were mysterious creatures for sure.

“We don’t know yet”, Nero straightened up again and the girl immediately sat on one of his thighs, in a way she was facing V too, “the bird guy says we have to check the library once again.”

V glared at Nero when hearing the appellative but before he could protest Anna began to talk in a whisper.

“You know, I’ve been thinking and I think I discovered where those monsters came from.”

V looked at the girl skeptically but Nero played along.

“Oh, really? From where?”

Anna made a theatrical pause before answering.

“The catacombs.”

A silence fell in the room, just interrupted by the harmonic tick-tack of the round clock hanging on the wall and, eventually, by Nero’s confused voice.

“What?”

Anna adopted an even more secretive tone while V looked at the girl with sudden interest.

“They are under the city. Long, long ago someone died there and the adults blocked the entrance because it was too dangerous. _But_ other kids found they could enter through a secret door in the library”, her tone became super convinced, “they haven’t explored much because it’s super scary and there are a lot of weird noises coming from there, but I’m sure the monsters lived there and got angry when I said they didn’t exist!”

V interchanged a look with Nero. Normally, he wouldn’t give much credibility to a child’s words, but taking into consideration how ancient Hillside was, the existence of catacombs was not entirely crazy, neither the fact that some of the demons that attacked them could have come from there. It was definitely something worthy to be explored.

“Could you perhaps tell us where that secret door is located?”

When hearing V’s petition, the girl nodded effusively. She stood on the floor again and after leaving her toy with Nero she rapidly abandoned the room, coming back seconds later with a notebook and some pens. She managed to make a space for herself between V and Nero in order to lean the notebook on the bed in order to draw on it. She went at it for almost five minutes, during which V simply observed her while Nero distractedly combed the stuffed toy’s synthetic hair, and when she finished, she proudly showed the result to V.

This one took the piece of paper and observed map which, as he was fearing, was extremely confusing to understand, due to all the unnecessary colors and Anna’s current lack of talent in the drawing department. He was opening his mouth to ask the girl for more accurate information when he saw the warning expression Nero threw at him, which made him soften his next words.

“Thank you. I think we will manage.”

Anna smiled widely and after recovering her toy from Nero’s hands she left their room with a cheery ‘Good night!’, walking exaggeratedly slowly probably to prevent her mother from discovering she was still awake.

“Congratulations”, Nero said when the door closed behind Anna, “your skills to deal with children have leveled up.”

V clicked his tongue softly, showing the map to Nero with a sarcastic expression.

“Marvelous, but now I dare you to try to understand these scribbles.”

Nero exhaled a patient sigh and took the paper. He observed it for some seconds before returning it to V with a cocky smirk.

“Done”, V blinked, looking at the map and then at Nero, who began to signal at the drawing, “this is the library entrance. This is the lateral room, and this is the shelf next to which the secret door is.”

After a short incredulous pause, V opened and closed his mouth once before talking with a light annoyed tone.

“And how do you deduce that this set of lines are a shelf?”

“Because she has added the word ‘books’ next to it.”

“...And how should I exactly know that _that letter_ is a ‘b’? It clearly looks like an ‘h’.”

V realized too late that he maybe had sounded a little on the defensive when Nero barked another laugh, which caused him to glare at the boy.

“Don’t worry, tomorrow I will take care of the guiding”, without waiting for a confirmation, Nero took the paper from V’s hand and stood up from the bed, rolling his arms briefly before looking at the invoker, “which time we should meet tomorrow?”

“Early, to avoid as many unnecessary people as possible.”

V couldn’t help to grin when his answer made Nero groan in annoyance.

“Then wake me up when it’s time to go. I’ll be sleeping on the sofa.”

V frowned when hearing Nero, who was about to leave the room.

“On the sofa?”

Nero opened the door, talking while exiting from it.

“Yeah, there is just a guest room, and since you collapsed it was only fair you used it”, he moved his chin towards him in a goodbye gesture, “good night.”

With that casual comment Nero closed the door, not leaving V time to say anything back. He stared at the place Nero had been mere seconds ago, slightly surprised that the boy had been so considerate.

“Well, well, V, I’m impressed!”, both Griffon and Shadow suddenly manifested to land on the bed’s foot, “it seems that you and the boy are becoming best buddies.”

V snorted softly when hearing Griffon’s mocking comment, standing up to remove his coat in order to get changed with the clothes Anna’s mother had lent him, consisting of a white undershirt that reached past his thighs and a couple of pajama pants that he refused to try on, since it was evident they would be too loose for him.

“I think that’s going too far”, V entered the bed, covering himself with the sheets and the duvet even if it was May and the temperature was pretty warm, “‘tolerating each other’ would be a more accurate term.”

Griffon cawed while V turned off the lamp of the nightstand, lying on his right side next to immediately close his eyes.

“You know we familiars can detect at some extent how you truly feel, right? You can’t deny you are glad that your relation with the kid has improved.”

V bit his tongue not to click it, opening his eyes again. He turned the lamp on again and sat on the bed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked at Griffon, who had tilted its head while waiting for his answer, and then at Shadow sitting next to the bed, who simply nodded slowly as if he was agreeing with the bird, before talking slowly as if he was doing it with really dumb kids.

“Well, obviously I am glad. It is evident that the rate of success of our mission improves if we are not at each other’s throat. However, if you both are insinuating that I am somehow seeking a deeper relationship with the boy that goes beyond a purely professional collaboration, the answer is a resounding ‘no’.”

V half-closed his eyes at Griffon when this one said a long ‘ _Riiiight_ ’ that didn’t sound convinced at all, and that seemed to be supported by the way Shadow shook his head. He softly clicked his tongue and eventually decided to lie on the bed again, turning off the lamp a second (and hopefully last) time before closing his eyes, not willing at all in engaging himself in a surely tiring and pointless discussion with those annoying familiars which, Vergil knew why, had been imposed to him against his will.

* * *

“Good morning, kid!”

Nero snapped awake with a loud curse when suddenly hearing Griffon cawing that next to his ear. It took him a moment to remember he was in Anna’s living room, and when he did he dropped on the sofa again with the back of his hand over his forehead. He realized then that Griffon was laughing at him from the small living room table, so he cursed again while throwing one of the cushions to the bird, causing this one to caw and begin to fly to avoid it.

“Fucking chicken”, at that moment V appeared from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand, so Nero signaled at the still chuckling bird, “you could keep watch on your pets, you know? He almost causes me a heart attack.”

“The first person who would love to control them more is me, believe me.”

Nero huffed when hearing V’s resigned comment, kicking back the thin blanket that was covering his body in order to stand up. Still muttering to himself he removed his tank top to reach for his clothes leaning against the armchair. He was in the middle of putting his t-shirt on when he realized V was leaning against the kitchen door’s frame, approaching the cup to his lips while staring at the opposite wall with unnecessary interest.

“What?”, Nero said, rolling the piece of clothing down his chest and abs while following V’s gaze.

“I’m giving you some privacy to get ready, even if you do not seem to need it.”

Nero’s mouth ended half-opened when detecting a hint of reproach in V’s words, realizing then that the invoker wasn’t looking anything in particular: he was simply avoiding looking at him while he got changed.

“Really, dude?”, he snorted, reaching for his pants to put them over his boxers, “I doubt I have something you haven’t seen already.”

“That does not mean I particularly enjoy seeing you in a half-nude state.”

Nero rolled his eyes but Griffon beat him in making a comment.

“Well, V, now we know why the kid is so strong: he has one brain cell but more than a muscle.”

Nero threw a small electrical shot towards Griffon with his Overture, causing this one to caw in protest while flying next to V. He smiled satisfied for having bothered the bird and after finishing tying his boots he entered the kitchen.

“Anna has left already?”, he asked when passing next to V, approaching the counter to serve himself a cup.

“Yes, both her and her mother. Around 5 minutes ago.”

Nero pinpointed then a rather tempting box with cookies on the small kitchen table and after hesitating he decided it wouldn’t hurt to take one.

“Already?”, he took a bite leaning against the counter with his legs crossed while V didn’t make any attempt of joining him inside, “what time is it?”

“Half-past eight.”

Nero began to cough the coffee he has just drank, looking at V in disbelief.

“Really? I thought you wanted to leave the house early.”

He saw V tensing from the frame and opening his mouth to speak. None of them was surprised when Griffon, once again, prevented that from happening.

“He overslept, pfffft. And is still angry at himself for it—!”

With a loud snap of his fingers V made Griffon disappear between protests, which made Nero suppress a small smirk while V approached one of the armchairs to sit on it. He had to admit that seeing the invoker losing his nerves with his pets was rather funny to see, not to mention him interacting with children. He had never seen someone acting so awkwardly towards them since Credo, which was a long time ago, he couldn’t help to think bitterly.

“Have you finished?”, V inquired, entering the kitchen and leaving the cup on the sink.

“Yeah.”

Nero devoured the last half of his second cookie (they were too good to take just one) and opened the sink to wash the two cups they had used.

“What are you doing?”

Nero looked at V in disbelief when seeing this one honest confused expression.

“Uhm...being a decent guest?”, he exhaled an incredulous laugh when that didn’t seem to clarify much to V, “don’t tell me you were planning to leave the dirty cup there.”

V’s imperturbable expression was enough answer, which caused him to snort.

“Now I understand why you always go ordering around. I bet you were a spoiled kid whose mum did all the work.”

Nero didn’t mean any harm with that comment. He had half-said it as a joke, and therefore the only thing he was expecting was a roll of eyes or a sarcastic comment as an answer, not the tension that passed to surround V’s entire body. Also, even if the only subtle change in V’s face was a light tense jaw, the way the invoker’s green eyes gained harshness indicated Nero that his comment hadn’t been too well received.

“I will be waiting outside”, was V’s only comment, spelled with calm but hiding an undeniable annoyance under it.

He sighed while V abandoned the kitchen. Maybe he should stop trying to make casual conversation once and for all, since every time that he commented something remotely related to V’s persona, the invoker came back to his original cold, jerk self. He had shaken his hands over the counter and was drying them on his pants after not seeing a cloth on sight when Griffon suddenly appeared on the counter, making him jump with a curse.

“Damn it, chicken, could you stop doing that—”

“V’s parents died when he was a kid.”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened, not having expected the bird’s revelation at all, which perfectly explained V’s previous reaction.

Immediately, he regretted having made such a comment. While growing up in Fortuna, he still remembered the frustrating feeling of being almost the only child who had been abandoned by both of his parents, the envy of knowing that the other Knights of the Order had a family waiting for them at home after the training or the missions. Eventually he came to consider Kyrie and Credo as his true family, but the feeling that something was missing never left him entirely, and therefore, he automatically tended to assume that he was the only one in having gone through that. Like right now with V.

“Shit”, he scratched the back of his head while sighing. He was about to leave the house even if he wasn’t sure about what he was going to say when Griffon stepped in front of him, flying faster than usual.

“Wait wait wait, don’t tell him anything. He will cook me if he knows I’ve told you, and will try to kill you if you ever bring up the topic.”

When hearing Griffon’s nervous words, he eventually decided to follow the bird’s advice, and also to be more careful from then on not to blurt out that kind of comments, though he was aware it was going to be complicated, seeing that he usually talked before thinking. Griffon exhaled a relieved caw when seeing Nero nod and disappeared so that V didn’t suspect what he had done, while Nero went back to the living room to recover his weapons before joining V outside.

Luckily, his predictions about spending a tense trip to the library for his not-very-fortunate comment were wrong, and although they walked in silence to their destination, when they were reaching the plaza and V suggested circling the building to avoid being detected by the people gathered in the front, the invoker sounded already like his usual serious, mysterious self without any extra tension surrounding him, which was kind of a relief.

It seemed that the authorities of Hillside took things way more calmly than in Red Grave, because with the exception of some people taking pictures of the deplorable state of the library, the inside of the building was completely empty, though they still entered for the back broken windows just in case.

“Lead the way.”

Nero ignored V’s ironic comment, extracting Anna’s drawing from his pocket while observing his surroundings. The fact that now most part of the shelves were broken with all the poor books scattered on the floor made the task of finding the secret entrance more difficult, but eventually Nero found out the wall situated next to a shelf whose location seemed to be the one Anna had drawn.

The girl had circled the area in the wall with a red pen, writing a note that could be interpreted as ‘fake’ next to it.

“I think it’s here”, Nero announced, keeping the map in the back pocket of his trousers.

He crouched on the floor to begin to touch along the wooden wall. V approached too, kneeling next to him when seeing that he had difficulties in finding it. After almost a complete minute of tapping against the wood and searching for protuberances that could hint there was a hidden button somewhere, Nero made a movement across the wall that caused the wooden panel to slide a little the side. They interchanged a look and, together, slid the panel completely until it ended hidden behind the next shelf, revealing an [ornamental air vent](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8a/e4/62/8ae4629658a8b57f50967d4286d40959.jpg).

“Hey, I think we found our secret door”, Nero said way too proudly, grabbing the air vent grid.

It opened more easily than it should, confirming that way Anna’s comment of children having been playing around the place. They both looked inside, but it was too dark to distinguish anything.

“Now the question is…”, Nero rubbed his nose with the back of his left hand and signaled inside the vent with a wide gesture, “...how the hell we are going to enter?”

After a small pause, V exhaled a long, resigned sigh and handled his cane to Nero.

“Make me some space.”

Nero blinked, standing up while carrying V’s cane while this one positioned in front of the conduct.

“Uhm...are you sure about this?”

Even while kneeling on the floor, V managed to throw a rather impressive haughty, annoyed look at him.

“Well, it is evident you will not fit, and we do not have many other candidates, don’t you think?”

“But you could send Shadow. Or Griffon.”

“Yes, I could, but if that child was not lying about the catacombs, there has to be another access somewhere, since I highly doubt this air vent is the only entrance. And, as handy as my familiars are in battle, sadly opening doors goes beyond their capabilities, so if you have finished with the foolish suggestions, I would like to finish this as quick as possible.”

It was plain obvious that being forced to crawl inside an old and surely dirty air vent was something that V wasn’t particularly happy to do, so for once Nero decided to keep prudently silent while the invoker was forced to lie completely on the floor to be able to enter through the extremely narrow place.

When V’s feet disappeared inside, Nero crouched again while V’s body kept sliding across the conduct, completely vanishing in the darkness at one point. When almost 5 minutes had passed and there wasn’t any sight of the man, Nero couldn’t help to worry a little, but just when he was considering the option of asking for help he heard a creaking sound, and the shelf of that same wall situated in the opposite corner began to open as if it was a door.

Nero closed his opened mouth and approached it, finding V in front of an opened passage with some old stairs leading down, breathing heavily and covered in dust.

“If there is nothing down there…”, V began with a threatening tone that lost some of its effect for how labored it sounded, “...I’m having a couple of words with that child.”

Nero returned the cane to V and followed him, biting his bottom lip not to chuckle when seeing the rather outraged invoker uselessly trying to remove the dust from his clothes and hair.

* * *

“Jeez, no doubt that children got scared when seeing this place.”

V didn’t say anything. As part of someone who had seen so many unpleasant things, a [dark corridor](https://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzLzUwY2UyYjRjY2NjNzE1MWUxYWY0ZjIyOTVkY2Y5ZjlhNGE2NTg1NGMuanBnIl0sWyJwIiwidGh1bWIiLCJ4MzkwPiJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcXVhbGl0eSA4MSAtYXV0by1vcmllbnQiXV0/50ce2b4cccc7151e1af4f2295dcf9f9a4a65854c.jpg) wasn’t something that particularly inspired anxiety in him, though he guessed that young children could be that impressionable. In fact, when being little both sons of Sparda used to explore the surroundings of the house that most part of the children of the city didn’t dare to approach, so probably having half of demonic blood had also influenced in their lack of fear.

“Okay, so…”, Nero speaking behind him made V push those thoughts away, “...what are we looking for exactly?”

“Something that helps us discover what Urizen—”

“I know that already, smartass. I mean something more specific.”

V stopped in his tracks and looked at his left, causing Nero to curse for being about to bump against him from behind. Most part of the different areas they had been passing by lead to dead-ends or had been blocked, but a particular area of the middle kept going and stretching further inside. Favorably for them, the citizens had time to install lights on the place before closing it to the public. Otherwise, since none of them had anything to light the way, they would have probably missed it.

“Well…”, V signaled with his cane towards the exit, “I think that place deserves a further inspection.”

Compared to the air duct V had been forced to go through, the [underground passage](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/09/1e/ac/36/underground-passages.jpg) they were currently crossing looked almost comfortable, though Nero didn’t seem to think the same, if the huffs and curses the boy was letting out non-stop were any indication.

“Shit”, Nero said for easily twentieth time, “if we are attacked now, fighting here is going to be funny.”

V had to agree with the boy, but it was a little too late to come back. They continued as the passage stretched more and more until, finally, it widened again. It took them some minutes of walking through older and mostly empty corridors to find something of interest: a [room](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kDk0pA4Oe2g/T_BxWxPZ4CI/AAAAAAAAUtI/-MaSEZydeOE/s1600/susanna3.jpg) of mortuary nature. Inside it, there was a hole in the wall with a coffin, a new passage that probably circled back to the main area, several murals showing people praying and a hooded figure that probably represented death, and, the thing that immediately caught V’s attention, an inscription on the wall.

“Can you read it?”, Nero asked with an unsure tone, noticing its deteriorated state.

“Barely”, V confessed, half sitting on the small step next to the inscription to take a closer look at it.

The language wasn’t a problem, since it was Latin and he had thoroughly studied, but the time and humidity had erased most part of the text, so he could just guess its meaning.

“ _Tyger Tyger, burning bright/In the forests of the night_ / _what immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_ ”

He spent some minutes trying to deduce what else was written under the first verses, while Nero looked at the text and at him with a light impressed expression that he missed. At the end though, he had to give up.

“The middle part is impossible to read, but these last verses at the end…”, V carefully settled his hand against the stone, muttering the words to himself before reciting them aloud once again, “ _when the stars threw down their spears/And water'd heaven with their tears:/Did he smile his work to see?/Did he who made the Lamb make thee?_ ”

Since V was busy trying to analyze the words he had just read, he missed too the way Nero nodded slowly with a dumbfounded expression.

“Yeah, no fucking idea what this means.”

V looked towards Nero without seeing him, still lost on what he had read.

“The inscription mentions some specific things, such as the Tyger, the forest, and the Lamb”, V focused on Nero, seeing him as lost as at the beginning, “I would need to verify it, but I think I have read those names before, when I was searching information about Hillside.”

Finally, Nero’s face illuminated, probably happy for understanding something within the last five minutes.

“Wait, so this inscription is referring to a place?”

V nodded, a small grin appearing in his face.

“Yes, I think so. Also, if this inscription really leads to a specific place of the forests around Hillside, and the book I found turns to give correct indications about the demons that live there, then there are two things we can confirm”, Nero’s face made evident the boy didn’t know, once again, about what he was talking about, so he continued speaking, “first, that there is something in that forest that deserves to be investigated. And second, that probably those demons are following Urizen’s orders.”

Nero frowned, unconvinced.

“You sure about that? Because I have never seen them team up in such away, and much less to other demons’ orders, no matter how powerful these last were.”

“Yes, I agree it’s not common, but the fact that this is the place that Urizen’s roots were first seen after Red Grave cannot be a coincidence. Besides…”, V’s tone turned more serious, “...I doubt that, up till now, you have faced a demon more powerful than Urizen, and even the most basic demons have an instinct of self-preservation. So, perhaps, they have decided that following Urizen’s orders is the only way to survive.”

Nero's jaw tensed when hearing V mention Urizen, averting his gaze to the side while crossing his arms. V was about to suggest coming back to the library to try to confirm his theory about the inscription when Nero frowned and tensed.

“Hey, V…”, Nero’s sudden serious tone put him in alert, “...is it just me, or right here there was a paint with a Death a moment ago?”

Nero had barely finished the sentence when V heard a metallic sound coming from behind that he immediately recognized, though maybe a little too late.

However, when V was already accepting that an injury was unavoidable, Nero tackled him against the ground at the exact moment in which a pair of gigantic scissors broke through the wall, inches over Nero’s head. Some stones and dust fell over them as a result, or more accurately, over the boy, since this one had ended on the top of him.

“Now you owe me one”, Nero said with a cocky tone. Their faces were so close that he could feel the boy’s breathing against his own before he was unceremoniously dragged upwards by his wrist.

When V was standing on the ground again, he extracted his poetry book while Nero reached for his sword. The demon that almost caused his beheading was a simple Sin, and in normal circumstances they wouldn’t have any problem in defeating it. However, because of the narrow space they were at the moment, fighting the demon while avoiding his dangerous attacks could be trickier.

“Fuck, what is this thing? And please, spare me the epic name.”

“Death Scissors”, V invoked both Griffon and Shadow, “they can travel through walls, so be aware of not getting too close to them.”

“Tsk, easier said than done.”

Nero situated in the middle of the corridor with V behind him. He saw the boy reach back with his hand to activate Red Queen, resigning himself to fight with Nero about the next course of action before talking.

“I wouldn’t recommend using it. Their scissors are extremely hard, so it would take much to break them.”

The demon seemed to understand his words because it immediately attacked, but V was fast enough to order Shadow to transform in spikes in front of them, deflecting that way the scissors legs.

“Okay”, V’s eyes opened a little wider when, after an initial moment of hesitation, Nero kept the hand on his sword but stopped charging it, turning his head lightly to the side to continue talking to him, “what do I do then?”

It took V a moment to comprehend that Nero, for the first time, wasn’t planning to carelessly attack the demon without thinking, that for once he was actually willing to listen to his advices.

He realized he had been staring at the boy in disbelief for a couple of seconds when the Sin attacked again, being Nero this time the one who avoided the attack. V certainly couldn’t blame Nero when this one threw an impatient look at him, and rapidly recovered from his stupor to talk in his usual smooth, calm tone.

“Its weakness lies on its mask. Break it and the demon will vanish.”

Nero nodded, a smirk playing at his lips.

“Easy peasy”, V made Shadow divert a new attack while Nero reached for his gun, pointing at the demon next, “come on, you piece of shit. Move those dangerous things away from your face.”

Realizing that the Sin wasn’t going to move unless being forced to do so, V ordered Griffon to throw a set of lightning bolts towards the demon, forcing it against the wall. As he had predicted, the demon slipped inside it, disappearing from their view.

“Careful”, V warned, commanding Shadow to focus on detecting the presence of the demon while Nero stood in alert, looking around, “it will probably appear from the ground, so at my signal, step aside and shoot at its mask.”

“Roger.”

V was thinking that he could definitely get used to an obedient Nero when he felt Shadow’s trail reacting, which made him say a commanding ‘ _Now_ ’. They both took a step aside from the place where they had been standing when the Sin was beginning to materialize under them, ending on either side of it. They both avoided the scissors emerging from the ground and V immediately ordered Shadow to attack it in his spinning blade form. That caused the Sin’s efforts to be focused on stopping the panther’s attacks, which gave Nero enough time to fully charge his pistol in order to deliver a set of three powerful shots straight to its masks, causing the demon to vanish with a garbled howl.

“Wow, that was easier than I thought.”

V rolled his eyes when hearing Nero’s slightly disappointed tone, closing his poetry book.

“We should leave. Sins usually attack in group and catacombs are the perfect habitat for them.”

He began walking through the corridor when he was stopped by Nero’s voice.

“Wait!”

V turned around to face Nero, frowning confused when seeing this one extending his arm towards him with his hand turned into a fist.

“Not bad for our first teamwork.”

V’s frown accentuated, staring at Nero and then as his fist, while noticing Griffon suppressing one of his annoying laughs.

“Uhm…”, Nero awkwardly signaled his fist with his other hand, “you are supposed to return it.”

V raised a skeptic eyebrow, but eventually accepted Nero’s curious celebration of victory by pressing his fist against the boy’s one. Nero snorted but there was a small smile in his face while beginning to walk down the corridor, taking the lead in V’s place.

“Come on: let’s find out what that weird inscription meant.”

V sighed with patience and was about to tell Nero he was entering a wrong passage when feeling Griffon’s intense look on him.

“Do you have anything to say?”

V had barely finished formulating his rhetoric question when Griffon talked with a mocking tone.

“I thought you didn’t want to get intimate with the boy, V. You know that a fist bump is a reaaaally bestie thing to do—? No no no, _wait!!_ ”

V snapped his fingers to make Griffon disappear again, fortunately for a while. He ignored Shadow’s light reproaching look and proceeded to follow Nero before this one got completely lost, riding on the dark trail form the panther adopted to travel faster.

Despite Griffon’s wrong assumptions of him wanting to establish an actual bond with the boy, he had to admit that the successful fight, as brief as it had been, had confirmed his suspicious about the advantages of working together. And therefore, when finally finding Nero cursing in front of one of the passages with zero idea about where to go, there was a small smirk in his face that he didn’t even realize to have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little by little but hey, at least they 'tolerate each other presence' now hehehehe :D


	6. (May 21) - Human curiosity

**_May 21 - 10:24 a.m_ ** _._

“But you will come visit again, right?”

Suspecting that V was about to answer Anna with an excessively sincere reply, Nero rapidly intervened.

“Yeah, of course we will.”

He ignored the way V looked at him and crouched so that his face was at Anna’s level. The girl, looking a little sad, was leaning her back against her mother, who had her hands placed on her daughter’s shoulders while observing him with a smile.

“When?”, the girl’s tone sounded so expectant that he didn’t hesitate in his answer.

“Soon. But first we have to fight against the monsters so that they don’t come back to bother you _ever_ again, okay?”

Anna smiled and nodded, apparently convinced by his arguments. She enclosed her arms around his neck to hug him and he incorporated again while still grabbing her. He exhaled an exaggerated ‘ _Oof!_ ’ while swinging her a little from one side to the other, making her protest with a funny offended: ‘ _Hey, I’m not heavy!’_ that made him laugh.

He deposited a quick kiss to her temple and left her on the floor again. The girl stuck her tongue out at him playfully before turning towards V, blushing lightly. When feeling the kid’s attention on him, the invoker automatically tensed, and Nero was about to facepalm when, after clearing his throat, V offered his fist towards Anna, who observed the gesture while tilting her head in confusion.

“You are supposed to return it.”

Nero didn’t know how he managed to hold back a secondhand embarrassed laughter when hearing V’s almost proud comment. Anna blinked a couple of times while returning the fist bump, but she seemed to decide that it wasn’t a valid enough farewell because she hugged V next, managing to surprise the invoker with that reaction for a second time.

“Here. This is for you two.”

Nero averted his eyes from V, who was awkwardly patting the girl’s head as if she was some kind of strange animal, and focused again on Anna’s mother. With a confused frown he took the plastic bag she was offering him. He peeked inside, seeing at least half-a-dozen of food containers.

“It’s to make sure you don’t run out of supplies in the forests. The food will last a couple of days for sure, but still try to leave it in a cold place tonight when you reach the motel.”

He smiled at the woman gratefully.

“Thanks a lot.”

“No, thank _you_ ”, the woman accompanied the last emphatic word with a look towards Anna, who was now with her hands joined while asking V if she could say goodbye to ‘ _the kitty and the birdie_ ’, “I don’t know what I would have done in case of losing her too.”

The woman had said that last sentence in a tone low enough so that only Nero could heard it. He sighed and placed a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder, the gesture making her show a new melancholic smile. He had seen some pictures around the house in which a younger Anna appeared with both of her parents, so it wasn’t hard to deduce which loss the woman was referring to.

When Anna had probably said the twentieth ‘ _Please_ ’ addressed to V, the invoker gave up and agreed on invoking the familiars so that the girl could say them goodbye. She hugged Shadow, who purred while rubbing his head against the girl, and while V watched Griffon so that the bird behaved while the girl patted his head, Nero managed to somehow put all the food inside the backpack that Anna’s mother had also lent them. After that, they finally left the house to go to the bus station.

Unlike him, who turned around several times to wave his hand goodbye to Anna and her mother, V didn’t look back even once. They didn’t talk too much during the walk, though this time the motive wasn’t V’s usual lack of talkativeness but the fact that they had estimated wrongly how much it would take them to reach the station, so when barely 5 minutes remained until the bus departure and they were still half-way, Nero was forced to run almost at his maximum speed while V rode on Shadow to be able to match his rhythm.

When they arrived, the bus driver had already started the motor and the bus doors were closed, so Nero practically lunged against the transport while exhaling rapid, labored ‘Wait’s. He hit the bus glazed doors to catch the driver’s attention while V extracted their two tickets, swinging them slightly. Nero gulped when the driver rolled his eyes, thinking for a moment that they were going to be forced to wait for another one, but after a couple of seconds the doors opened again and he sighed relieved.

“Thanks”, Nero said without air, causing the man to grunt something unintelligible while reluctantly accepting the tickets V handled him.

The bus was rather narrow, so Nero was forced to walk laterally until reaching their seats, situated almost at the back.

“Just in time”, Nero exhaled after dropping next to the window, and this time he probably deserved the irritated glance V threw at him while also sitting with way more elegance than him.

“We have arrived more than 5 minutes late, so I highly doubt _that_ expression is appropriate at all.”

Nero crossed his arms while fully leaning against his seat as the bus began to move again.

“But we did it, right? And that’s what counts.”

V shook his head, leaning his cane between the two seats.

“I presume you at least remembered to pack everything we need.”

Nero knew it was a jerk move to adopt a fake horrified expression, but the way V froze when believing he had really forgotten to do so was rather funny to see.

“Relax”, he palmed the about-to-burst backpack twice, “I have them.”

V opened his mouth, probably to insult him in a fancy way, but at the end he just made a ‘getting close’ gesture with his fingers that Nero correctly interpreted. Admiring the backpack zipper for not having broken yet, he extracted the different food containers to rummage inside more easily, in order to retrieve the bag with all the things he had bought the previous day.

After coming back from the catacombs, they had visited the tourism office to get a map of Hillside and its surroundings in order to find the place mentioned in the inscription. If any of them had been in possession of any basic technical knowledge, they could have used the computers of public use inside the office instead of searching in a traditional way. However, Nero had grown up in the old-fashioned Fortune and till that day he still refused to have a mobile, and although V had initially tried to use one of the PCs, when it took him almost 5 minutes to deduce he had to type something on the search bar and almost 10 seconds to introduce the first letter of ‘Hillside’, the invoker muttered a slightly frustrated ‘ _Enough_ ’ and came back to the slower but more familiar method of examining the map.

Since Nero’s knowledge to solve the riddle was close to none and V looked rather close to lose his nerves with every suggestion he made, the invoker momentarily stopped the search to elaborate a list of supplies Nero had to gather for their search in the forest. He initially suspected that V simply wanted to get rid of him to be able to work in peace, but he also told himself that V wouldn’t be so subtle in case of wanting to lose sight of him. Almost all the things he had to buy consisted of herbs, and although he recognized most part of them there were a few he had never heard about, which caused him to visit almost all the pharmacies, drugstores and herb stores around.

Eventually he managed to find all the materials, but by when he came back to Anna’s home it was past dinner time. V had already excused himself and was in his room, so he spent some time talking to Anna and her mother before calling Kyrie (who _finally_ was in Fortuna) to hit the bed (or more accurately, the couch).

“Don’t you trust I bought everything?”, Nero said with resignation when seeing V examine the content of the bag while muttering quantities to himself. The invoker then looked at him with an imperturbable expression.

“No, I was just wondering if you had the invoices.”

He looked at V with a deadpanned expression.

“Seriously?”

“You should know already I’m always serious.”

“Man, I just used the money to buy that shit, okay? I’m not a thief!”, Nero shut up, averting his eyes while talking to himself, “although maybe I used it to buy that chocolate for Anna?”

“Well, that would certainly explain the 10$ missing.”

“God, you’re such a penny-pincher. But fine, I would return them to you when we come back, happy?”

V offered him a small grin and inclined his head softly in a mocking appreciative gesture. Nero rolled his eyes, stuffing the supplies inside the backpack again.

“I’m surprised you haven’t asked me why we need all that.”

He snorted when hearing V. He was putting the containers back inside the backpack when a familiar smell coming from one of them made him leave it outside.

“That’s because I may have one brain cell but I can identify the ingredients of an antidote when I see them.”

Since he was busy opening the container carefully so that the constant sway of the bus didn’t cause the food to fall, he missed V’s impressed look.

“The child’s mother said we should save the food for the forest”, V reprimanded when he finally removed the cover and dove to pick one of the several cookies stored inside.

“Come on, this is clearly a snack for the trip”, Nero placed the recipient so close to V’s face that the invoker was forced to press the back of his head against the seat, “you sure you don’t want some?”

V pushed the container away from his face and towards Nero’s direction with the palm of his hand.

“No, thank you. And I think _that_ was inside.”

Nero followed V’s eyes and realized the invoker was referring to a small piece of paper that had apparently fallen from inside the container. With his metallic hand still sustaining the recipient, he reached down to recover it. It was a handwritten note, and if the very irregular calligraphy wasn’t enough hint about who had written it, the message: ‘ _Their my first cookies! Hope you like them <3_’ left little room for doubt.

“Aww”, Nero couldn’t help to exhale while V observed the cookies with suspicion.

“Be careful. If that child cooked them, maybe they aren’t edible.”

Nero exhaled an incredulous laugh when realizing V weren’t joking.

“Dude, they are just cookies”, V didn’t look convinced at all so he took one in his mouth, beginning to talk while still munching it and causing V to wrinkle a little his nose disapprovingly, “see? I’m still alive.”

“For now.”

At least that last comment had been ironic, Nero thought while swallowing. He was about to eat another one but there was something that caught his attention and made him exhale a short chuckle.

“What?”, V inquired with curiosity.

“This one is for you.”

V frowned confused, taking the cookie Nero was offering him.

“And what makes you deduce that?”

“It has a ‘V’ marked on its front and it looks like a heart”, he was about to roll his eyes when V changed the position of the cookie, as if he was unable to distinguish the mentioned shape, “just eat it, okay?”

The invoker examined it for some more seconds before sighing in defeat.

“Well, since she has made them for us, I guess it would be impolite not to taste it at least.”

V gave it a small bite and Nero couldn’t hold back a teasing smile when the invoker’s eyes opened more for a moment.

“So, what’s the verdict? Edible or not?”

V placed the arm that wasn’t sustaining the cookie across his chest, taking a bigger bite as his eyes avoided Nero’s ones.

“I admit it tastes better than I thought.”

He exhaled a triumphant ‘ _Hah_!’, grabbing another cookie.

“Of course it does. And she has a name, you know?”, V looked at him without understanding, so after swallowing the new cookie without barely chewing it, he continued, “Anna. You always call her ‘child’ or ‘girl’ and it’s weird as fuck. I think you haven’t called her by her name even once.”

V rubbed his right index and forefinger against his thumb to remove the crumbs from his hand before looking at Nero, and this one was surprised by the sudden coldness that had appeared in the invoker’s green eyes.

“From my point of view, it’s even weirder to get too familiar with someone I will never see again.”

Nero frowned.

“But you don’t know that. You never know when you can meet that person again. Besides, by following that logic, you would never get close to anyone.”

V slightly tilted his head to the side.

“I fail to see the problem.”

After a short pause, he huffed.

“Aren’t you taking the lone wolf attitude to the extreme?”

“Not at all”, V’s prompt answer surprised Nero, “the fewer people you have to care about, the fewer the chances to be harmed because of them.”

The invoker’s sentence was pretty ambiguous. With it he could mean that having people you cared about implied that enemies could go after them, or also that those same people you loved could be the direct culprits of inflicting pain. By taking into consideration Griffon’s words about V’s past, Nero suspected the invoker was probably going for the second, but he didn’t plan to press the matter. He didn’t want to risk to have a second battle with V after all.

“So, according to you, being a hermit is the best option.”

His skeptic words made V show an amused smile before talking with a patronizing tone that Nero wasn’t expecting.

“I guess it is something difficult to understand when you are young, but when you grow up you will not see this philosophy of life as unappealing.”

He huffed again, crossing his arm.

“Why the hell you’re talking like an old man? I doubt you’re much older than me.”

“It depends: if we are talking in intellectual terms—”

“No, jackass, I mean in physiological terms.”

V offered him a mysterious grin.

“Then I guarantee I’m younger than you.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide in disbelief.

“Wait, are you serious?! You aren’t even 24? Shit, how old are you?”

“Nero, didn’t anyone teach you that asking someone about his age is impolite?”

He half-closed his eyes but V’s expression was as unreadable as always, so he gave up. He had never been good at guessing people’s age anyway, so he took a mental note about trying to discover if V had a wallet with him to check his ID.

“Anyway, I bet that I will reach Morrison’s age and I’ll still think that this hermit thing you’re talking about is bullshit.”

V shrugged his shoulders lightly.

“Perhaps”, V reached inside his coat for the book they found at the library, “but realistically speaking, considering your not precisely placid lifestyle, I doubt you can reach that man’s age without suffering a loss that makes you reconsider your way of living.”

Nero couldn’t help to grit his teeth when V’s careless words made him remember not only Credo, but also all those people in Fortuna, fellow knights or simple civilians, who had died because of Sanctus. He guessed V didn’t particularly care about his past, since the invoker had just expressed aloud his reluctance to pay attention to other people’s lives, but still he was unable remain quiet and talked with a ruder tone than intended, effectively attracting V’s attention once again.

“I’ve had losses. And yeah, it was hard, and it made me felt like shit for months, years even. Actually…”, he gulped softly, pushing away the image of Credo being murdered without him being able to do anything to prevent it, “...I still feel that way sometimes.”

V half-closed his eyes briefly, a hint of curiosity passing through his eyes, but he remained silent while Nero continued.

“But at the end of the day, I don’t regret having met those people. Because if the alternative was not meeting them at all just because someday they were gonna be gone... _fuck it_. And call me idiot if you want, but I think that pushing them aside would have been even shittier than losing them, and way more coward.”

A small silence fell between them, during which V simply stared at him, looking at him without actually seeing him. After some seconds Nero was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable for having shared such a thing with practically a stranger, and was about to look through the window to break eye contact when V spoke a single word.

“Idiot.”

Nero stared with opened eyes at V when this one simply said that while beginning to read, and it took him a moment to realize the invoker had just followed his petition to the letter, which made him snort while taking another cookie that probably belonged to V.

“Weirdo”, he snapped back, although to be completely honest, that appellative could be applied to all the folks involved with _Devil May Cry_. Himself obviously included.

* * *

 

 ‘ _When my mother died I was very young_ ’

 V’s jaw tensed when the book of poems casually opened in that exact page. Thinking that coincidences were surely a funny thing he closed the book, leaning his elbow on the armrest closest to the bus aisle and his cheek against his knuckles. A couple of hours had passed since the bus trip started and he and Nero hadn’t shared more words since that surprising and totally unexpected interchange of opinions about what they understood by meaningful life.

He threw a side glance towards the boy. This one was with his arms crossed and with his temple leaned against the bus window, deeply asleep with that perpetual frown in his face. V honestly admired Nero’s capacity of being able to rest even if the driver could have very much acquired his license that same morning, considering the too sharp turns he made and which in more than one occasion almost threw him against the sleeping boy. However, what he didn’t admire as much was Nero’s intrinsic ability to make him speak _and_ think more than he should.

Exhaling a deep breath, V averted his eyes from Nero. Uselessly, he tried to push away the unnecessary thoughts that had been sneaking in his mind after discovering that Nero’s past held more complexity than the boy let it show. He clicked his tongue softly. Griffon could disagree with him, but it was crystal clear that Nero was really similar to Dante. He clearly belonged to that category of people who faced each situation with an annoying sense of humor and excessive cockiness, in order to palliate the problems they could be going through. Although taking it at face value, he shouldn’t be complaining too much about that attitude. After all, each person had their own coping mechanisms: while for some it was that apparent unconcern, for others it was a pretended indifference. Indifference that, in his case, was clearly cracking or otherwise he wouldn’t be paying so much unnecessary attention to the boy.

Not in the mood of reading poems anymore, V switched to the monsters book. He had read it to the satiety, to the point that he even remembered the descriptions of some of the creatures inside, but he nevertheless decided to check he had taken everything into account. Maybe by doing that his stupid brain would stop coming up with irrelevant theories about what could have happened to Nero in the past. Because obviously, asking Nero about it was totally out of the question, since that would give the boy the opportunity of asking back and…

...And _what_? It wasn’t as if Nero and him were equals. In fact, thinking carefully about it, the only reason why Nero was in that journey was because Dante had failed in his mission. The boy was simply taking the younger son of Sparda’s place, from which it could be diverted that Nero was actually working for him. Of course V didn’t plan to voice it in such a way not to add unnecessary tension between them, but the conclusion was that, as Nero’s employer, V didn’t have the least necessity to give any explanations to him but he could ask the boy about it without feeling forced to share in case of being asked in return.

V closed his eyes, rubbing his temple when realizing that reading wasn’t being enough to keep him focused on other things besides Nero. He could almost hear Griffon’s irritating loud voice saying something along the lines of: ‘ _Jesus, V, stop beating around the bush and ask the boy if you are curious!_ ’, and he was _really_ considering to do it in order to stop that nonsense when the driver began to speak from the front.

“For the ones suffering vertigo I advise not looking through the window during the following 20 minutes.”

V did exactly the contrary, seeing that now the [road](https://ak1.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/7417681/thumb/1.jpg) had a rather steep cliff on one of its sides while mountains and forests kept being at the other, and certainly V could not blame the two ladies sitting some seats ahead of them that began to pray because the driving had been everything but smooth up till that point. Fortunately, it seemed that the man in the wheel wasn’t a complete incompetent and reduced the bus speed, being more careful from then on.

Probably by doing so the man saved their lives without even knowing it, because when something heavy and apparently alive suddenly fell on the top of the bus, the only reason why they didn’t fall to the cliff to an almost certain death was the fact that the slower speed gave the driver enough time to maneuver, allowing him to change the bus direction with a strident skidding sound that made the passengers began to exhale panicked shouts.

“What the fuck?”, the sudden ruckus and the violent turn of the transport woke Nero up completely, “what the hell is going on?”

V didn’t need to answer because at that moment they were about to hit the seats in front of them when the bus was pushed from behind violently. The impact made the bus bounce and end a little too close to the cliff, causing people to get even more hysterical. V and Nero looked over their seats at the same time, distinguishing a lizard-like animal through the back window.

“A riot”, V said, his attention drifting upwards when more heavy stomps sounded over them, “and they are more than one.”

“Shit”, V took his cane and stood up rapidly from his seat to allow Nero reach the aisle, in order to recover his weapons from the overhead bin, “they can smell us or what?”

‘ _Probably me_ ’, V thought, but didn’t say.

At that moment V realized that, in their panicked state and unable to think clearly, some people were trying to abandon the bus.

“Do not step outside”, V’s authoritarian tone made the couple that was already reaching the door to stop in his tracks, together with all the people already standing on the bus.

“But we are next to a cliff!”, a man on his fifties cried, signaling through his window, “we are going to fall if we don’t do something!”

“OI, what the fuck are you doing?! Start this thing already!”, a teenager suddenly shouted towards the driver from a point in the middle of the bus. By then V had already extracted his poetry book and was muttering a poem while Nero charged his sword.

“One of the front wheels is not working”, the driver said with a calm tone that at least deserved some praise, “I think that last impact teared it up.”

“Hey... what is that thing?”, a boy sitting in the last line of seats sobbed while signaling with a trembling finger at the lizard that had put some distance between him and the bus. V tensed when seeing the stance of the demon but he didn’t stop reciting. He estimated they had just some seconds until the riot impacted against them again, this time causing the bust o fall for sure.

“Kid, get out of there!”

This time it was Nero the one in saying the order, effectively causing the boy to come back to his parents. The boy then approached the emergency exit situated on the bus ceiling and after indicating the people not to approach it he addressed V.

“Can you take care of the bus?”

V snapped his fingers as an answer, invoking his three familiars outside. The action made the passengers exhale new cries, obviously not knowing if the new creatures were friends or foes.

“Relax, they are with us”, Nero said to the bus driver when this one got pale after seeing the golem situating in front of the bus to grab it tightly with both of his big hands, securing it.

From inside the bus, V commanded Griffon and Shadow to attack the riot that planned to hit the bus again, while Nero made the most of the other demon over them being distracted with Nightmare to finally open the emergency exit and slip through it.

“Damn it, we can’t have a single peaceful trip?!”, V heard Griffon squawk outside while throwing lightning bolts at the riot. Shadow was also growling while attacking the reptilian. He also heard in the background Nero insulting loudly at the other demon while shooting with his weapon and mechanical arm. It didn’t take Griffon and Shadow much to defeat the demon with their combined efforts, neither Nero alone to kill the second, and V was about to invoke Nightmare back when two new riots fell from the mountainous side of the road. After seeing that attacking the back of the bus hadn’t been effective, the demons tried another tactic and began moving towards the side of the bus.

“Nightmare, cover the other side!”

Despite his command couldn’t have come sooner, the golem was too big to move fast enough, so when one of the riots began to run against the bus Nightmare hadn’t had time to change positions yet. V heard Nero exhale a loud ‘ _Fuck!_ ’ over them, and although the boy jumped over the demon to slice him, this one had time to use his powerful tail to deliver a critical impact that made the bus do a half-turn, the back of it ending hanging from the cliff. Fortunately, Nightmare was still holding its front and stopped the mortal falling. However, the fact that V was probably the only one who wasn’t holding onto anything caused him to fall against the back window on his left side. Over the shouts of the people, he clearly heard the glass slowly cracking behind him, and for the first time, he was glad that his body was so light and lean because otherwise he would have probably fell through the glass.

“V!!”, Griffon suddenly appeared at the other side, flapping his wings hysterically, “oh no, oh no, what do we do?!”

At that moment V heard one of the riots growling and several shots followed, which made the next words leave his mouth before even thinking them.

“Help Nero.”

“What?! But what if you fall?!”

“Then I will summon you, but right now those riots are the priority. Go!”

Between protests, Griffon left to come back to the road. V made sure to keep still and not to move a muscle while ordering a new commanding ‘ _Stay still_ ’ towards the other passengers, who again didn’t dare to disobey allowing Nightmare to slowly begin to pull the bus, placing it safely on the road again after a rather tense minute.

V practically fell on the last line of seats when the bus was again on its natural horizontal position. He rapidly abandoned them to avoid the broken crystals that fell inside, sitting a couple of seats ahead with his legs leaning on the aisle. In the meantime, his familiars and Nero had taken care of the riots, the reptilians’ inert bodies now scattered on the road. Not daring to invoke Nightmare back yet, V simply looked through the window in front of him at the exact moment in which Nero was looking at his direction. He hadn’t time to interpret the boy’s expression because Nero disappeared from his view, managing to reappear some moments later in front of him, probably after breaking his way through the light traumatized passengers without any delicacy.

“You okay?”

The obvious concern that slipped through Nero’s words caught V by surprise, and also the way Nero stared at his left arm. He did the same and was surprised when seeing a fresh horizontal cut there, which was leaving a vertical thin line of blood down his arm. He must have got that injury when falling against the glass, but with all the tension and adrenaline he hadn’t even felt it.

“Yes.”

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh, leaning his weight against the seat opposite to V, ending face to face with him.

“You know, maybe we should avoid public transport from now on.”

V was about to agree with him when, suddenly, the passengers began to applaud loudly towards them. They looked at everyone startled, not having expected that reaction, and much less that the driver approached to hug Nero effusively.

“Thank goodness I’ve let you inside.”

The man’s way too sincere words made Nero exhale a slightly tired laugh. The driver turned then towards V but wisely decided to show his gratitude with a hand-shake. Several people approached too in order thank them for having saved their lives. The bus driver announced then that he was going to call for a new bus and after that people began to step down the broken one, to take some fresh air and also to take some pictures with the fallen monsters. V was about to click his tongue when seeing that annoying teenager taking a picture of himself and one of the riots, and rapidly invoked Nightmare back after seeing the stupid kid planned to do the same with the golem when the driver approached them again.

“Here”, the driver offered him a first aid kit, “the other passengers aren’t hurt so use it to your heart content.”

Griffon and Shadow appeared at that moment next to V and Nero, causing the driver to let out a startled curse before muttering a low: ‘ _My children aren’t going to believe this…_ ’.

“Goddammit, V, didn’t you realize you were bleeding to death?!”, the bird exclaimed, causing V to roll his eyes.

“It cannot be that bad if I barely noticed it.”

He was about to open the kit when Nero spoke.

“Wait, let me.”

V’s eyes opened more when after rolling up his sleeves a little, Nero took the kit from his hands. He extracted a couple of bandages and an adhesive tape from it, reaching for the bottle of water they had brought for the journey.

“Oh, so the boy is going to ‘play doctor’.”

V was about to glare at Griffon but Shadow shut the bird up for him by hitting the crow with his tail. V looked then at Nero. He didn't know if the boy hadn’t caught the second meaning of Griffon’s sentence or if he had simply decided to ignore it. In any case, he was glad for it.

“Show me you arm.”

Complaining for being ordered around in that situation was a little extreme even for him, so in silence he sat properly on the seat so that Nero had a better view of the wound. The boy grabbed his elbow without warning while situating the thumb and forefinger of his left hand on either side of the wound to examine, the unexpected contact and Nero’s closeness making V automatically tense.

“Relax.”

V bit his tongue when Nero’s innocent comment made Griffon cackle a laugh, that was fortunately interrupted by an annoyed ‘ _Ouch!_ ’ when Shadow smacked him again.

“You’re a box of surprises”, V couldn’t help to point out, looking at Nero with curious eyes while this one kept examining the cut with a concentrated frown, “I would have never imagined medical knowledge was among your qualities.”

Nero’s eyes fixed on him, a small smirk appearing on his face.

“So you think I _do_ have qualities”, V half-closed his eyes at Nero, but the boy’s attention was on the wound again, “and thanks for the compliment but nah: my medical knowledge is very basic. I just know some first aid tricks because I learned the hard way in my previous job.”

V kept looking at Nero inquisitively, as if doing that would make him keep talking, but Nero came back to talk about the injury.

“Well, it’s not deep. And if it’s not stinging too much there shouldn’t be any glass shards inside.”

Nero released V’s arm and poured some water on the cut before pressing the bandage against it. It was a little uncomfortable but V had memories of going through way worse injuries than this one, so the pain was almost non-existent.

“For now you should simply press it until it stops bleeding completely”, Nero instructed, reaching for the tape and cutting a couple of pieces with his teeth to keep the bandage in place, “when it does so, we should apply some antibiotic. We can use some of the herbs for that.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary”, V commented, recovering his cane while Nero leaned against the seat again, “because as dangerous as this fight has been, it has also provided us with new ingredients to treat the wounds.”

He signaled with his cane towards the window, causing Nero to look at the place he was pointing at with a raised eyebrow.

“Those things?”, Nero said with confusion.

“Yes. Or more accurately, their fluids.”

Nero turned his head almost in slow motion to look at V.

“You are kidding, right?”

V couldn’t help to grin when hearing Nero’s horrified tone.

“I’m afraid I’m not. As gross as it sounds, they possess some healing properties whose effect is more powerful than usual medicines.”

“Okay, but what do you exactly mean with ‘fluids’? Does that mean saliva?”

“Oh, not necessarily. It can also be mucosa, gastric juices, even excrements in some very particular cases.”

Nero wrinkled his nose. He opened his mouth to probably express his disgust when his eyes shined with suspicion.

“Wait a moment, if you’re making fun of me right now...”

Nero left the threat hanging in the air, which made V show his best innocent face.

“I would not dare”, his ironic tone didn’t seem to convince Nero, so he proceeded to talk completely seriously, “and I find utterly strange you haven’t made use of this knowledge: have you never ingested a green orb before?”

Nero’s eyes opened gradually in horror.

“ _WAIT_ ”, Nero signaled with his arm at the fallen lizards with a brusque gesture, “are you saying that all those orbs are made with…”

For the first time since he awakened in that form, V found himself suppressing a full laugh when Nero interrupted himself to exhale a loud, disgusted groan before covering his mouth with a grimace.

“Shit…”

“Indeed.”

Nero glared at him when hearing his amused reply.

“You know you will have to eat _that_ so that your arm heals, right?”

“Yes, I am aware”, V said with a calm tone, “but first, we obviously have to wait until it crystallices before ingesting it, and second, as long as the result is beneficial in the long term, I have never minded doing certain sacrifices.”

Nero hummed to himself, crossing his arms before talking mockingly.

“Like working with me?”

V offered him a small grin.

“For example.”

Nero rolled his eyes but he didn’t look especially bothered by his comment, probably because it hadn’t sounded as sharp as in other occasions.

“Well, I guess that at this point we can’t allow ourselves to be too picky”, Nero said, uncrossing his arms to point at V with a threatening finger, “but like hell if I’m taking care of this alone.”

V blinked.

“But I’m injured.”

Nero looked at him in disbelief.

“Man, it’s a fucking scratch!”

“We cannot be sure about that, maybe your diagnosis was incorrect and it’s more dangerous than it looks. After all your medical knowledge is pretty basic. You yourself said that.”

“Oh my god”, an incredulous laugh escaped Nero while shaking his head, “fine, we’ll cast lots.”

“Very well. Griffon, can you think a number?”

“Sure thing!”

“Hey hey hey, like hell if we’re using _your_ familiar. We’ll flip a coin.”

V was about to protest but Nero was already picking his wallet from his bag to take one.

“Okay, tails for me.”

“And why are you the first one choosing?”

“Because it’s my coin”, Nero deadpanned, making V roll his eyes, “so heads for you.”

Nero flipped it, caught it, and exhaled a frustrated ‘ _Damn_ ’ that told V the result of the flip without having to see it.

“Fuck”, without stopping cursing, Nero rudely took the plastic bag where the containers used to be and began to walk to the bus exist, “the next time it will be your turn even if you are dying, you hear me?”

“Be careful”, V simply said with an extremely satisfied obliging tone, “riot’s fluids are a little toxic, so make sure they do not touch your skin directly.”

Nero offered him a fake, grateful smile while showing his middle finger with the hand that wasn’t sustaining the bag. When Nero stepped down the bus, V changed seats to have a clearer view of the outside. He observed with barely concealed amusement at the boy barking at the people still taking pictures next to one of the fallen riots so that they made him space to proceed with the fluids’ extraction. He couldn’t enjoy the boy’s struggle for much time though, because after a couple of minutes a young woman stepped inside the bus, looking for him.

“Hi! The driver told me you’d been injured”, the young woman smiled shyly while approaching, “do you want me to examine it? I’m still in my third year of Nursery Degree but I’ve already known everything about cuts.”

V observed briefly the bandage in his arm and after a brief moment of hesitation he shook his head with a polite smile.

“I appreciate it but I’m alright. Thank you.”

The woman nodded in understanding before looking through the window, an idiotic smile appearing in her face while looking at Nero.

“I hope to find such an attentive boyfriend someday.”

He was so shocked by the woman’s sudden comment that by when he reacted, she was about to abandon the bus.

“Excuse me”, the woman looked at him surprised, “there has been a misunderstanding. There isn’t any kind of intimate relationship between that man and I. We are only travelling together because of work. That is all.”

The woman exhaled an embarrassed laugh.

“Sorry, my bad. He looked so worried about you before that I automatically assumed you were together.”

V was surprised when the woman’s words provoked a strange and completely uncalled warm feeling in his chest, although it disappeared so fast that he almost doubted it had happened in the first place.

“Then…”, the girl’s eyes glinted hopefully, “...he is single?”

V shook his head.

“Engaged.”

The girl exhaled a disappointed ‘ _Oh_ ’ before shrugging.

“I should have figured it out. He’s too hot not to be taken already.”

With a wave of her hand the girl abandoned the bus, leaving V in a pensive state. Up till that point, it hadn’t honestly crossed his mind that Nero could be considered attractive, much less ‘hot’. After all, for him the boy was simply the one who would help him to stop Urizen. Nothing else.

After distractedly tapping on the armrest with his nails, he decided to take a look at the boy from a pure aesthetic perspective, with the only intention of verifying if that woman’s words had any foundation. Nero was still next to the riot, now without the coat and the worn-out red jersey, giving his back to V while the other passengers surrounded him to observe what the boy was doing with curiosity, and it was evident that Nero was trying to cut through the thick, hard skin of the demon and was having some difficulties with it, since V could perfectly notice the defined muscles of his back tensing through the thin grey t-shirt he was wearing because of the effort. He found himself humming. Well, certainly the boy had an enviable body, it would be stupid not to give him that...

“V, for goodness sake, have some decency and stop staring at that boy’s ass.”

V jumped again and almost strained his neck while glaring at the bird posed on the opposite seat. He had totally forgotten the familiars were still there.

“I wasn’t doing such a thing”, but now that Griffon mentioned it, it was a fact that the boy’s backside was pretty decent…And why such an irrelevant thought entered his mind, he would never know.

At that moment he heard a triumphant ‘ _OH YEAH_!’ that made him focus on Nero again, finding him laughing proudly while doing some kind of [victory dance](https://youtu.be/X8czpLFibio?t=15) after having managed to cut through the lizard’s skin.

“Ohoho, but you don’t deny you were staring~”

V sighed while Griffon laughed, deciding that, from then on, he would simply ignore the bird instead of falling for his obvious provocations. He stood up briefly to recover the poetry book that was still lying on the back seats and sat again but on the opposite side of the bus, considering wise to put an end to the observation because one thing was to feel pure human curiosity towards Nero’s past, or to realize that the boy’s physique was pretty impressive, but he had to put a limit somewhere.

And definitely, thinking even for just a tiny instant that the boy looked good while smiling was a train of thought that he did not plan to pursue further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, V: we all would drool because of Nero, there's no reason to feel awkward ( ~~*cough* Who said that? *cough*~~ ).


	7. (May 22) - Lone wolves

**_May 22 - 10:46 a.m._ **

“Sorry, this is the furthest I can take you.”

V wasn’t expecting the sudden breaking of the [ pickup-mini car ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/40/0c/4d400c2547be143723260dec501d9bbc.jpg) that was taking both Nero and him to the entrance of Hawkgrove forest, which forced him to grab the side of the open trunk with force while clicking his tongue with annoyance. Shadow, against whom he had been sitting in the back of the car for better comfort, raised his head in confusion after waking up from his nap because of the sudden stop, yawning in the process. Another one who was fortunate enough not to suffer from sleep problems, V thought in self-mocking. He guessed that such a privilege could be only enjoyed by those whose past wasn’t stained with blood and, especially, regret.

“Hey, enjoyed the trip?”

V turned his head to look at an excessively satisfied Nero smirking at him from the copilot seat, where he had been comfortably sitting during the trip.

“Not as much as you seem to presume.”

His sarcastic answer just made the boy snort with the smirk still in place. V sighed with resignation and stood up by leaning his hand on Shadow’s back. He took the bigger bag carrying the food, herbs and some spare clothes while Nero stepped out of the car, circling it to situate in front of the trunks. 

“Need help to step down?”

Nero’s good-natured comment only made V’s annoyance grow. He really had to look weak if the boy didn’t see him capable of stepping down without help, so as an answer he simply threw the bag towards Nero, causing the last to exhale an ‘ _Oof_ ’ while giving a couple of steps backwards. 

“You could simply say no, you know?”, Nero protested, hanging the bag over his left shoulder before approaching the front of the car again. 

When V was sure Nero was out of view, he invoked Griffon so that the bird softly deposited him on the ground. It had been the familiar’s idea that he accepted to be in the trunk, since ‘ _the boy has already extracted all that gross monster fluid and deserves some rest!’_. V couldn’t deny Griffon had a point, since thanks to Nero they had a container full of green orb shards that had successfully crystalized that same night. V was still wearing a bandage around his arm though, since he had just taken the necessary so that his injury stopped bleeding, preferring to save as many as possible because if the information about the monsters book was true, the probabilities of them needing to use them for other injuries were higher than he would like. 

V recovered his cane and a smaller shoulder bag from the car and joined Nero at the front. The bus driver had lent them that item the previous day after they stopped in the motel situated at the foot of the mountain where Hawkgrove forest was, also providing them with some extra bandages that V was also carrying with the green shards.

When he joined Nero and the driver, the first had already thanked the man, who apologized again for not venturing himself more in the forest. The boy obviously replied that he had done more than enough by getting them there. After all, the man had taken them there as a gesture of appreciation, since he happened to be a relative of the one of the bus passengers, who didn’t hesitate in telling him about how Nero and V had saved the life of everyone inside the bus.

V remained in silence while Nero shook the man’s hand as a final goodbye gesture, nodding towards him after it and proceeding further inside the forest. The noise of the car’s motor disappeared, replaced by the distant chants of birds and the wind slowly moving the leaves of the trees.

“So…”, Nero looked around with curiosity, “...since all the roads look the same, should I flip another coin to see where the hell we begin to search?”

V suppressed the urge of sighing with patience. At least, even if most part of Nero’s suggestions did not shine for their utility, the boy now asked before acting, which was a big improvement because he was pretty sure that some days ago, Nero would have merely ran randomly around the forest while hitting all the dangers he met ahead. 

“First we should carry out an initial sweep of the area” V invoked Griffon again, extending his arm so that the animal landed on it, “that way we can be prepared beforehand.

“And you are planning to send that bigmouth?”, Nero asked with skepticism, “you sure he won’t alert the enemies instead?”

“Hey, show some respect, nice-ass”, Griffon exclaimed offended, “I’ve been in this business for more time than you, you know?! I can keep my mouth shut when it’s needed!”

Nero blinked, confused.

“Nice-ass?”

V managed to keep his expression coldly neutral, on the contrary than Griffon who exhaled a short loud laugh before beginning to fly towards the trees, fortunately without making any unnecessary clarification to the confused boy.

“It shouldn’t take him much”, V said when detecting Nero was about to ask him about the bird’s appellative, approaching him next, “in the meantime, let’s get ready.”

V felt Nero follow his next movements with curiosity, which consisted of opening the bag the boy was carrying to extract the herbs. 

“You gonna prepare the antidote now?”

“Yes, since we are going to take it.”

“What? Already?”, Nero asked with a frown while V poured on his hand the small pieces of the herbs he had carefully prepared the previous night, after they went to their separated rooms to sleep.

“We would be naive by assuming that demons are the only dangers waiting ahead”, V explained while mixing the herbs together with a circular movement of his index and forefinger over his palm, “sometimes nature can be just as terrible.”

“You mean the plants?”, Nero asked, half-closing his eyes at the closest bushes as if doing that would be enough to convince them not to try anything funny. V suppressed the urge of making a comment about the futility of doing such a thing, deciding to continue with his explanation.

“More than the plants, it’s the natural myst that seems to surround this forest what worries me”, V added a single seed of the orange plant it had taken Nero so much to find in Hillside to the herbs, “because the presence of demons can affect the area where they prowl, and the effects they can provoke are quite different: they could simply provoke an inoffensive headache, but also hallucinations able to turn the most strong willed person crazy.”

V wasn’t expecting that Nero interrupted his words with a knowing snort.

“Yeah, I know how dangerous that shit can be.”

V’s eyes shifted towards Nero’s face. His tone had clearly hinted that that information wasn’t unknown to him, but instead of adding anything else the boy was distractedly checking that the fingers of his mechanical arm worked properly. V bit his tongue, fighting against the urge of asking Nero about it to focus on finishing preparing the antidote.

“Here”, V offered it to Nero, who examined it suspiciously.

“Why have you put that seed inside?”

“In order to strengthen and prolong its effect”, V began to extract new herbs to prepare his own and half-closed his eyes when Nero unnecessary smelled the mix of herbs, “I can guarantee it is not poisonous.”

“Tsk, if you say so.”

V’s eyebrow twitched. He didn’t know why, but the fact that Nero was so reluctant to ingest his objectively perfect antidote when he hadn’t the least trouble in trying that girl’s mediocre cookies irritated him a little. At least, the way Nero cursed with a grimace when eating the bitter mix helped improved his mood. 

He had barely ingested his own dosis when Griffon came back.

“I haven’t seen any demons on the surface”, the bird said from above, “not in 500 meters ahead at least.”

“Good”, V signaled ahead of him with his cane while Nero rinsed out his mouth with water, spitting on the ground later in a poor attempt of removing the taste the antidote had left in his mouth, “stay some meters ahead nevertheless. We should avoid any possible ambush.”

“Roger!”

When the bird disappeared again, V commanded Shadow to give priority to his sensing ability, since the fact that Griffon hadn’t seen anything didn’t mean that demons couldn’t be waiting for them under the ground.

The following hours were rather tedious, because the fact that they didn’t know what they were exactly looking for made them waste time examining things that eventually proved not to have any value, such as deviations that resulted in dead ends, or caves with nothing of interest with the exception of animal fossils that would have been the delight of any archaeologist. Also, the more the walked inside the forest, the thicker the myst turned, to the point that a couple of times V lost sight of Nero even if the boy was mere meters away from him. At some point, V lost track of what time it was, the thing that announced it was around lunch time being Nero’s stomach, who rumbled loudly.

“Ups, sorry”, Nero commented, settling his hand against his stomach while Griffon joined them again while laughing.

“And it was me the noisy one?”, the bird lowered himself a little to point at Nero’s stomach with his beak, “I bet that thing can alert demons even more than me—”

Griffon flapped his wins away from Nero with a curse when this one threw a small electrical shock towards him. V, who was busy observing his surroundings to decide where to continue searching, was startled when Nero suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, why don’t we stop for a while?”, he pointed back with his thumb towards a fallen tree trunk, “this forest is not going anywhere and this looks like a calm spot.”

V exhaled a resigned sigh but eventually nodded, even if he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry. He sat on the trunk with his cane close to him, while Nero decided to sit on the ground directly with his legs crossed and his back leaning against the wood. Nero passed him one of the food containers, inside which there were turnovers that still tasted rather decently even if they had been made the previous morning. V left both Shadow and Griffon invoked so that they kept watch as Nero and him ate in silence, or all in silence Nero could manage since the boy’s table manners left much to be desired. Hadn’t anyone taught him that chewing loudly was rather impolite? Definitely Nero’s parents could have done their work better.

“You know, you never told me how you managed to deduce this was the place we had to check”, Nero suddenly intervened, looking at V from below with curiosity. 

“You haven’t asked until now”, V simply answered, taking a small, _silent_ bite of his food while Nero managed to accomodate an entire croquette inside his mouth, miraculously managing to talk next with a still understandable voice.

“Okay, I’m asking now”, Nero insisted after rolling his eyes, probably because V hadn’t even brought the topic for himself.

V wasn’t very thorough with his explanation. He simply commented that both the Tyger and Lamb terms apearing in the verses made reference to areas around Hillside whose names were rather similar, and that the water mention allowed him to limit more the zone, since it was the one in which annual rainfalls were the most abundant.

Nero hummed and nodded to himself after he finished speaking. V was about to leave the conversation for finished when the boy intervened again, this time with an unsure tone.

“And you are sure we are in the correct place, right?”

V stopped midway to take his probably last piece of turnover, throwing an irritated glance at Nero that would have surely provoked anyone with a minor common sense to stop talking at once.

Obviously, Nero didn’t belong to that category of people. 

“I’m asking because we’ve been walking for a good while now and we haven’t found anything yet.”

“Well, thank you pointing it out, Nero”, it was above V’s strength not answering with sarcasm, “I hadn’t noticed it myself.”

The fact that Nero simply rolled his eyes and continued eating as if he was the unreasonable one forced V to take a deep breath not to add a new sarcastic comment. They remained in silence for some more minutes until Nero, again, broke it.

“This place is pretty similar to the Mitis forest. I really hope not finding those shitty things around.”

V looked at Nero with interest.

“Mitis forest?”

Nero nodded, extending his legs in front of him and crossing one over the other.

“Yep. It’s the forest surrounding Fortuna. It used to be infested with demons and the people who dared to explore it began to disappear. But things got better once we managed to beat the Chimeras wandering around. For a while at least.”

V nodded in silence.

“You have said ‘we’”, he pointed out, “who are you referring to?”

Instead of answering, Nero offered V a mocking smile.

“For wanting to be a lone wolf aren’t you asking too many questions?”

V froze when hearing Nero’s comment, realizing the boy couldn’t be more right.

For the way Nero gulped subtly, it seemed that the boy had noticed his change of attitude and had partly regretted his comment because he looked about to speak again. V didn’t let him though, adopting a studied neutral tone while leaving his still half-full container on the tree trunk.

“Excuse me for a second. There’s something I must check.”

He stood up and began to walk without turning back to look at Nero, who was staring at him eye-wided and confused.

“Hey, come on, it was a joke!”, V heard Nero stand up too but he didn’t hear any steps, so he deduced the boy had remained next to the tree trunk, “V, where are you going?”

“To check on Griffon. It isn’t recommendable to leave familiars on his own for too long periods of time.”

“Really? He looked fine being on his own the entire morning.”

Nero’s comment clearly showed the boy hadn’t bought the excuse, but V wasn’t in the mood for coming up with a better one. 

V walked until Nero couldn’t be seen anymore and leaned against one of the trees with his arms crossed. He took a deep breath. Seriously, what was wrong with him lately? Before starting that journey, the only thing he cared about was to gather all the possible information about Urizen. In fact, during the almost two weeks that took place between his first visit to Dante and their first encounter with Urizen, he had limited his meetings with the younger son of Sparda to the minimum, and during those times he had exclusively asked about topics related to the mission. Nothing else.

But, somehow, when Nero was involved his behavior was more unexpected, like the previous day in the bus when he spent (wasted) so much time thinking about the boy, or like what had happened mere minutes ago. Because if he had asked Nero about the monsters the boy found in the Mitis forest, that question would have been justified as him wanting to know more about the dangers they could face. However, he had decided to ask _with whom_ Nero had been working instead. Was that relevant for the mission? Obviously not, but still he had decided to put the importance on the boy instead of on the other more relevant information, and such an incomprehensible thing irritated him to no end.

“Oi, what are you doing here all alone, V?!”

The last sighed, guessing that having some time for himself was too much to ask. He looked at Griffon observing him from one of the lowers branches with his head tilted with curiosity.

“Nothing. The boy was being a little annoying, that’s all.”

A part of him told him that he was being  a little unfair but he rapidly silenced it, since ultimately Nero was the clear source of those confusing sensations invading him, so it wasn’t that unreasonable to blame the boy for it.

Griffon hummed to himself, clearly not convinced by his answer, but his more than probable protest was cut when Shadow joined them in his feline form. The panther rubbed his head against V’s thigh briefly before turning in his shadow trail shape. V took the hint and let Shadow guide him, with Griffon flying next to them. 

“Shouldn’t you let the boy know where we are going?”

“He was still eating”, V simply answered, talking then with a reluctant tone when Griffon looked pointedly at him, “you can go warn him if you want.”

“I’ll take that as a: ‘ _Please, I miss the boy, bring him here_ ’”

V was going to snap he did not miss anyone, forgetting already his resolve of ignoring Griffon’s comments, but the familiar had already disappeared back to where Nero was. V clicked his tongue, enjoying more than ever Shadow’s quiet nature as they kept moving until stopping in front of a cave that could be easily missed due to the vines that covered the entrance. 

Shadow shaped into a panther again and pointed inside with his head. V carefully pushed the vines aside, the fact that the sun was still up in the sky and that the myst wasn’t as intense there allowing him to see some kind of [ ciphered message ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Complete_view_of_Inscription_in_cave_at_Naneghat.jpg) written in the rock. 

He sighed, rather relieved that his assumptions hadn’t been wrong. However, before he could even think about deciphering it, a shot followed by a familiar loud squawk sounded in the distance, which put him and Shadow immediately in alert. A simple look towards his familiar made the panther immediately appear under his feet to travel towards the source of the noises. 

Thanks to Shadow travelling even faster than usual, it took them less that five minutes to come back to the area where they had stopped to rest, in time to find Nero and Griffon fighting against half-a-dozen of Chimera seeds while arguing.

“It’s obviously your fault for not having detected them, you stupid chicken!”, Nero was shouting while aiming at the legs of one of the demons in order to make it lose balance.

“My fault?!”, Griffon shouted while creating an electrical sphere surrounding him to push away two Chimera seeds that had tried to jump on him, “I haven’t been the one who has peed on one of them!”

V, who had ordered Shadow to attack the remaining two demons the moment he stepped on the area, couldn’t help to stare at Nero with his eyes open wide in disbelief after hearing his familiar’s comment.

“That you did _what_?”

“It was an accident! How the hell I was supposed to know that one of those things was hiding in those bushes?!”

Nero’s protest was interrupted when he was forced to turn around to shoot at  one of the demons. In fact, now that V paid attention, Nero hadn’t even had time to button up his pants completely, the loose belt provoking a metallic sound with each of his movements. 

Considering rather unnecessary to keep looking at Nero’s groin for a second longer, V focused on his current battle. The good news were that chimera seeds weren’t particularly strong. The bad ones were that they were surprisingly clever, and when feeling themselves in a battle that they could lose, they attacked strategically to focus their enemies’ attention on the bigger group in order to give one of seeds the opportunity to escape, being this one in charge of alerting others of their kind. With such a technique, you could be easily distracted and end ambushed by dozen of chimera seeds without even noticing, 

Realizing that at that rate that situation could be about to happen, V extracted his poetry book while his familiars and Nero beat the remaining chimeras. As he was fearing, Nero had barely finished the last one of them when another six appeared from their surroundings.

“Nero.”

The boy looked at him when being called and V was surprised when he immediately nodded without him needing to add anything else. Nero began to taunt the demons, effectively dragging them inside while Griffon and Shadow attacked to achieve the same result. Once the demons were successfully brought together, V raised his arm while snapping his fingers, invoking Nightmare so that it landed in the middle to raze them in one single blow.

“Wow, nice way to finish the battle, big boy”, Nero said with a laugh, patting the golem’s arm and causing this one to let out a cavernous noise that sounded quite pleased.

“Hey, don’t talk as if he was the only who did something!”, Griffon protested as V recovered his breath, calling the golem back. The prolonged invocation of his familiars together with Nightmare’s attack had a hindering effect on his body, so he decided to sit on the tree trunk to rest a little.

“Oh, so someone wants to be called a good bird?”, Nero mocked.

“You little—”

V rubbed his eyes while sighing. He was about to put an end to that childish fight when he detected movement in one of the bushes situated behind Nero, who had lowered his guard while talking to Griffon.

“Nero, behind you!”

Neither his warning nor Nero’s rapid reaction were enough so that the boy could avoid the chimera seed that jumped from the bush, while summoning up its tendrils so that they enclosed around Nero tightly.

“SHIT! You fucking pest!”

The demon’s surprise attack couldn’t last more than a couple of seconds, since Shadow rapidly threw a spike towards the seed to stop its blooming process, which in case of being completed would have to put Nero under its domination. 

When the chimera seed fell onto the ground, Griffon still shot some bolts towards it to completely destroy it as V approached Nero, who had sank to his knees breathing heavily after being released.

“Look at me”, V commanded, crouching on the ground to place a hand on Nero’s shoulder. When the boy didn’t obey immediately he grabbed Nero’s chin to make him raise his head, freezing when noticing that the boy’s pupils were dilated and that his skin felt way hotter than it should. Without wasting any time he examined the back of Nero’s neck, gulping when noticing a small recent circular mark provoked by one of the seed’s tendrils suckers. 

Really, among all the enemies that could have hit Nero, it had to be a _female_ chimera seed.

“What?”, Nero exclaimed a little breathlessly, detecting there was something wrong after seeing V’s expression. 

The invoker didn’t answer, rapidly fumbling inside his shoulder bag to extract the container with green orbs shards. The boy took some of it when the container was opened but V shook his head when Nero planned to stop.

“Take more. At least another two handfuls.”

Nero frowned in utter confusion.

“That many? But if that thing has poisoned me the antidote wouldn’t be enough?”

V looked at him impatiently.

“It depends: do you want to risk to bear chimera eggs inside you?”

Nero’s expression turned into one of horror when hearing his cutting words. With a curse he dug for more green shards, chewing on them furiously.

“It seems not even chimeras can resist to your charms, kid.”

Nero glared at Griffon but since his mouth was full he couldn’t answer. When Nero had already taken two doses and was going for the third, V stopped him by placing a hand on his wrist.

“Look at me again.”

This time Nero obeyed immediately, his clear blue eyes digging on V with intensity as this one examined them. V also placed a hand on the boy’s forehead to measure his temperature, nodding after some seconds.

“It seems you aren’t developing any fever, which is a good signal.”

“So that means I don’t have any shit inside me?”

When hearing Nero’s nervous tone, V guessed it was not the moment to point out the inaccuracy of his statement.

“Theoretically, thanks to the antidote and the fact you have ingested green orbs almost immediately after the injection, the eggs the chimera has implanted should be already destroyed.”

Nero looked at V in alert.

“Theoretically?”, he repeated, making V nod.

“Obviously the possibility of an egg having survived, even if uncommon, still exists, so for now I recommend you to stay put for now.”

“Fuck”, Nero gulped again, staring at his stomach with worry before looking at V again, “and when the fuck I’ll know for sure?”

“Simple: if within the hour you aren’t feeling any labor contractions, it will mean you are clean.”

“And if I _do_ feel them?”

V looked at him with an imperturbable expression.

“We will cross that bridge when we get to it. After all, as I’ve said the probabilities of an egg having survived is extremely low.”

“HAH! Considering your luck in this journey maybe we’ll have a baby chimera making us company— _OUCH_!”

V thought that Griffon certainly deserved to be hit by Shadow’s tail _and_ the bolt coming from Nero’s arm at the same time.

* * *

Nero didn’t remember the last time he had walked so slowly and with so much care, while trying not to think that maybe in an hour he would be giving birth to one of those things, the thought itself making him want to puke. Damn, why the fuck he had lowered his guard at that moment? He should have remembered that female chimeras never joined the males melee attacks, preferring to remain hidden to strike when no one was expecting it. But well, the harm was done now, and at that point he could just hope that that bitch’s offspring had been gone for real.

It took them almost twenty minutes to reach the cave Shadow had found, even if under any circumstances it would have a five minutes walk. Once they were inside the cave, Nero simply sat on the ground against the stone wall as V proceeded to decipher the message written there, sitting also on the ground with his legs crossed, a little in diagonal to him. 

As the minutes passed and the time to discover if he actually had one of those gross things inside got close, he began to be worried about any small movement his stomach did, even if sometimes it was simply caused by his breathing. He thought he was handling his nervousness pretty well, but it didn’t seem to be the case because when he had almost jumped for the third time, V noiselessly invoked Shadow, who approached him to lie next to him, leaning his head on his lap.

“If there are any suspicious movement in your stomach, he will notice”, V explained without looking at him, his attention devoted exclusively to the notes he was taking. 

Nero looked at V, surprised, before shifting his attention to Shadow, who looked back up at him and nodded with a small grunt. He smiled and patted the panther’s head while leaning against the wall, feeling way more relieved with the feline’s presence.

Not having very much to do except waiting, Nero simply observed at the invoker absentmindedly. It was a little funny to see the contrast of V’s serious, concentrated expression and the colorful, child notebook on which he was writing, that they had bought on the motel’s reception. He thought to himself that V was in fact a man full of contrasts, being able to be cold and serious but also incredibly childish sometimes. What didn’t change though was his reluctance to open himself even a little. 

He was aware that only a week has passed since they met, but the fact that V didn’t even want to share his age with him was strange to say the least. Nero couldn’t help to wonder what had happened to him in order to be so secretive about everything. Maybe the death of V’s parents had something to do with his shut-in nature, but since he had promised the chicken he wouldn’t bring up the topic he could only guess, because obviously, the possibility of them being close enough so that V shared such an information on his own volition was out of the question. Enough surprising it was already that they managed to get along after how badly they started, so Nero preferred not to risk coming back to such a tense relation for commenting something he shouldn’t.

“Well, I think it’s safe to assume you are not pregnant.”

The invoker’s unexpected comment caused Nero to look at V with opened eyes, finding this one offering him an amused smirk. He looked at Shadow again, and when this one nodded Nero exhaled a relieved curse.

“Thank goodness”, he exhaled as V came back to take notes.

“I told you the possibilities of such a thing happening were low.”

Nero kept rubbing Shadow a little until this one stood up from his lap. The giant cat nuzzled against the side of Nero’s head, since they were not at the same level, causing this one to chuckle while the familiar returned to V, all his tattoos on place once again.

“Thanks.”

V stopped writing to look at him with a frown.

“What for?”

Nero blinked, exhaling a surprised chuckle.

“I don’t know, for stopping me from having unwanted chimera babies maybe?”

V’s expression didn’t change.

“But you were the one who gathered the materials for the antidote and the green orbs, so half of the merit of your recovery is entirely yours.”

Nero blinked slowly.

“Man, can’t you say ‘ _you’re welcome_ ’ like a normal person?”

A fleeting hint of a smile passed through V’s factions, but eventually didn’t fully form.

“I’m not a normal person”, Nero was about to agree effusively on that when the invoker continued, “and besides, I merely helped you out of interest. You wouldn’t be much of a use for the mission if you had died here.”

Probably if V had said that same thing some days ago, Nero would have snorted while thinking that V was a complete jerk, but due to their recent interactions and some of the invoker’s reactions to some of his comments, Nero simply nodded with an amused smile.

“You don’t have to try so hard, you know?”

V, again, stopped writing for the sake of looking at Nero with confusion.

“I beg your pardon?”

Nero extended his legs while crossing his arms, looking at V directly in his eyes.

“To play the cold guy role all the time. There’s nothing wrong for doing something good for someone.”

It was subtle, but since Nero was paying attention he realized V gulped softly before clicking his tongue, talking next with an arrogant tone that now Nero knew he sometimes used when feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Yes, I guess there isn’t. After all, saving that child in Hillside allowed us to find the catacombs, and thanks to that passenger on the bus who told everything to his uncle, we arrived here relatively fast. So you may have a point: doing ‘good things’ has proven to be rather useful up till now.”

V’s extreme cynical answer didn’t prevent Nero from keeping smiling.

“Good try, but I don’t buy it. There was no way you could have known that saving those people would help us get here. And the same way…”, his smile widened, “...there wasn’t any necessity of invoking your panther right now.”

The invoker managed to keep a rather neutral expression during his speech, but when he said the last part, V tensed.

“Are you saying I invoked Shadow _just_ to calm you down?”

“You have said it, not me.”

His ironic comment made V half-close his eyes at him.

“My apologies for disappointing you but there is a reason for it: if you had kept jumping in such away, perhaps you would have made the hypothetical eggs hatch, which was beyond unacceptable.”

Nero rolled his eyes before closing them, interlacing his fingers behind his head.

“Whatever, V. I just say that caring about people is not something bad. And in fact, _not_ caring about the people you work with is the best way to screw up the job.”

When a small silence fell between them, Nero thought that the conversation was over and that V had decided to focus on the inscription again, so he was surprised when the invoker talked with a way too neutral tone.

“It sounds as if you are talking from experience.”

Nero opened his eyes again to look at the invoker, who was looking back at him with barely concealed curiosity. At that moment he remembered what had happened when he had teased V before, causing the invoker to leave the place. Wanting to avoid that from happening again, he decided to reply to the question he had left unanswered before.

“Yeah, I learned that during my time as a Knight in Fortuna.”

Nero didn’t give more importance to his comment because he had always assumed V knew already about it. For the way the invoker’s mouth fell completely opened it seemed he didn’t, and it was an opportunity too good to let it pass.

“Oh, so you didn’t know that you were working with a Holy Knight of the Order of the Sword?”

When hearing his complete title, a curious smile appeared in the invoker’s lips.

“I didn’t take you for a strong believer of Sparda.”

Nero huffed.

“Like hell. I never had anything to do with those creepy fanatics. I just joined the Order because...reasons”

That comment gained him an arched eyebrow.

“With ‘reasons’ you mean your fiancée?”

Nero’s mouth fell a little opened.

“How did you guess it?”

V pointed with his chin at his pendant.

“The first day I noticed you both were wearing really similar jewels. They were not identical but looked similar enough to be categorized as matching pendants”, V offered him an arrogant smirk, “And you have looked at it before hesitating in your answer, so I presume it was a gift from her.”

Nero whistled, exhaling an impressed laugh.

“Wow. You are a little scary, you know?”

“Why? For being observant?”

“ _Way_ too observant.”

“Does that mean I am correct then?”

He snorted, crossing his arms again.

“Almost. It’s true I kind of joined the Order for Kyrie, but it wasn’t the only reason”, he hesitated but at the end continued, “I did it for her brother too. I owed it to him after all they did for me.”

He felt V’s penetrating gaze on him but he decided to leave the explanation at that, not feeling like sharing anything more about Credo yet. In fact, he didn’t know if he’d ever be ready for it. Just thinking about the man, about how and why he had died, was painful enough. And frustrating.

“Anyway, when I was in the Order, I hated to work in teams, and I preferred to go to a bunch of solo missions rather than having to collaborate.”

“And I am the lone wolf?”

Nero was expecting that sarcastic interruption since he began to talk, but he had an answer ready for that.

“Yeah, well, I was for some years. And that attitude got me punished several times, but I didn’t care because we always succeeded in our mission. Until one day…”, his tone turned half guilty and half embarrassed, as it usually happened when remembering something you didn’t feel proud about,  “...another Knight was hurt because of me, after I ignored the order of working in pairs and rushed on my own. I didn’t realize the myst in the forest was making me walk in circles until I ended in the fucking heart of a Chimeras’ den. Fortunately my partner arrived in time, just when I thought everything was lost. He didn’t just save my life that day: he also covered for me so that I wasn’t expelled from my unit. And when I asked him why he did that, he said: ‘ _First rule of the unit: always take care of your companions_ ’.”

V nodded slowly.

“He sounds like an interesting fool.”

Nero laughed when hearing the invoker’s comment, since the insult didn’t sound as such.

“Yeah. He was”, he averted his eyes to the side and suppressed a gulp, since that man was among the people whose lives were lost because of Sanctus, “so, from then on, no matter what happened or even if I still preferred to be on my own, I always stuck to that rule”, Nero looked at V again, “and for the record: it worked. So maybe you should try doing it.”

V averted his eyes to the side, getting lost in his thoughts for a moment, and when he looked at Nero again he looked more determined, as if he had just made up his mind about something he only knew.

“I will consider it”, V offered him a condescending smile, “because the thought of being acting like the old, teenager you is quite unsettling.”

Nero huffed, flexing a leg to lean his left forearm on it.

“Well, since you are younger than me it’s logical you act more childishly.”

His comment had the desired effect, consisting of V clicking his tongue with an offended expression.

“I repeat you that it just applies in physiological terms.”

“You sure? Because you’ve been almost an hour deciphering that thing and you don’t look closer to solve it.”

The comment made V’s left eye to twitch.

“By all means, feel free to try it on your own, but as pleasurable as your company is I would prefer not spending an entire week locked here because you are unable to solve it.”

“Oh, so my company is pleasurable now?”

“It was _sarcasm_ , Nero.”

“If you say so.”

“...You keep talking, and I will tell your fiancée you cheated on her with a chimera.”

“What the—that’s cheating!”

“Oh yes, it certainly is.”

“You know what I mean, asshole! And please, stop calling Kyrie ‘my fiancée’. It sounds so...”

“...oppressive?”

“ _Arcaic_. She is my girlfriend, okay?

“My apologies then, but with how sickenly sweet you were when saying goodbye, ‘girlfriend’ fell a little short.”

Nero exhaled a defeated groan, but when seeing V come back to his annotations with an excessively satisfied smirk on his face, he found himself biting back another one, thinking that he could get used to that kind of banter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The guys are finally beginning to bond!! Now V has just to open himself a little... _ha_ xDD


	8. (May 23) - Night mission

**_May 23 - 2:13 p.m._ **

“...and that’s all I found.”

Nero slurped the milkshake he had ordered in the [diner](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/61/8b/62/ed-s-easy-diner.jpg) while V, sitting in front of him, exhaled a resigned sigh, crossing his slender arms over his empty side of the table. The invoker had finished eating almost 10 minutes ago while Nero was still attacking the first dish of the four that were included in the extra-large menu he had ordered.

They were now in Catterville, the closest town around where Urizen’s roots had also been spotted. They had arrived that same day when it was already past midnight, after a second bus trip that, miraculously, took place without incidents. With the illimited money V seemed to have, he rented a couple of rooms in a pretty decent hotel to spend the night, deciding to go separate ways the next morning in order to search for more information before meeting for lunch, though Nero doubted that the mini-sandwich and the tea V had ordered could be considered as such.

“So, in other words, there has not been any hints of demon activity around the area in the past year.”

Nero was forced to chew for some seconds and swallow before being able to answer V.

“Nope. Just a false alarm of a woman that thought her house was haunted, but the ghost she was seeing resulted to be her granddaughter sneaking in the kitchen at night to steal food”, he threw a curious glance at V, “what about you? Any clue about what those symbols say?”

The way V clicked his tongue in light frustration was enough answer for Nero, but the invoker talked nevertheless.

“The only thing I can confirm is that they do not belong to any human alphabet, but unfortunately my knowledge of demonic language is not as extensive as needed for this occasion. So, for now, I’m afraid that’s a dead end.”

The dark eye bags present in V’s face talked for themselves, and Nero deduced the invoker had probably spent part of the night trying to decipher the message. They stood in silence for some moments, V lost in his thoughts and Nero simply eating his now second dish, when the invoker spoke.

“And those murders you’ve mentioned before, do you have any more details about them?”

Nero approached his fist to his mouth to prevent a small burp (product of eating too fast, as Kyrie had reproached him more than once and twice) before shaking his head. He had come across that information without even knowing how, like most part of the information he had managed to gather on the hotel’s computer. Honestly, he would always prefer the traditional method of personally asking around as he used to do in Fortuna, but Catterville was way bigger than his hometown and consequently making use of the last technologies had been unavoidable.

“Not much. The news didn’t give any details about them, except that there wasn’t any connection between the victims, and that they all were found in different alleys of the nightlife area of the city.”

V frowned with curiosity.

“The news mentioned where exactly?”

Nero shook his head negatively, surprised when his answer made V stand up.

“Wait, you leaving?”

“I have a couple of things to check. I will meet you at the hotel later”, V pointedly looked at all the remaining food that Nero still had to finish, “or here, if you have not finished _yet_.”

Nero snorted as V abandoned the table, but V’s critique to his appetite didn’t affect him one bit and he stayed on the diner his good 20 minutes before leaving the place, feeling full and satisfied. He felt that it would take the invoker a while to come back, and since he hadn’t had the opportunity to check those damn roots in Hillside, he decided to make quite a detour in Catterville order to do so.

It took him another 20 minutes to reach the outskirts of the city. Next to the main road that was taken in order to leave Catterville, a security zone had been established around the roots that had popped up from the ground. However, on the contrary than the roots that had appeared the moment they abandoned Urizen’s den in Red Grave and that immediately began to attack, these ones seemed to be in the process of blooming, since they were smaller and didn’t look fully formed yet.

The moment he saw them, flashes of what happened that night a week ago came to Nero’s mind. He remembered those civilians that had been too curious for their own good, and who definitely hadn’t expected to die that night by being pierced for those tendrils. His hands turned into fists, the urge of slicing those for now immobile but dangerous things with Red Queen growing stronger and stronger. However, even if part of him wanted to simply lunge against those things to tear them into pieces, he found himself thinking that maybe doing that wouldn’t be clever because, at least for now, those things weren’t doing any harm, but that could change if he decided to attack them.

He sighed, scratching the back of his head before turning around to come back to the hotel. He couldn’t deny that working with V had woken up some sense of prudence in him that definitely hadn’t been there when that journey started, and even if he was sure that such a thing wasn’t bad per se, it was kind of shocking that the invoker had been the one in making him reconsider his reckless attitude from time to time, especially when he had been ignoring other people’s warnings about the same matter during the past years, Kyrie included.

Feeling a little guilty all of sudden for that realization, the first thing Nero did when reaching the hotel was calling her. They talked for a while (him omitting the part of him almost becoming father of a chimera of course) before he decided to come back to his room in order to take a nap, not having much else to do until V came back to think about the next step to take.

When he woke up with the sound of the door opening, it was beginning to get dark, which made Nero realize he had been sleeping for more time than he thought. With a soft grunt he rubbed his eyes with the knuckles of his left hand before sitting up on the bed, looking towards the door with a half-sleepy gaze in time to see V closing it while carrying his cane in his right hand and a couple of bags in his left.

“You went shopping?”, Nero asked while muffling a yawn as V approached the bed.

“Yes”, Nero frowned with confusion when the invoker handled the bags to him, “because you will need this for where we are heading tonight.”

“And where are we going exactly?”, Nero took the bag and was about to peek inside when V talked again.

“To a strip club.”

The last threads of sleep were punched out Nero’s body when hearing the answer.

Stopping midway the process of looking what was inside the bag, Nero looked at V while blinking. He thought for a moment that the invoker had finally developed some sense of humor during his absence, but V’s face was scarily imperturbable, and also his tone when continuing talking.

“Those murders that you mentioned, I have investigated a little on my own and even if it was not spread to the public, the cause of their death could not be entirely determined, being ‘extreme fatigue’ the closest explanation. Also, all the victims died at different times in different places, and the only connection that the police has been able to establish between the murders is that all of them seemed to visit a particular strip club of the city. However, even if they investigated it, they didn’t manage to find a single clue about how the murders were produced.”

Nero’s mouth half-opened in disbelief before talking.

“And how the hell did you manage to discover all this?”

V smirked a little, taking a sit on the armchair of Nero’s room while leaning his hands on the cane.

“You would not believe how talkative some people become with the correct incentive”, Nero frowned, looking at V suspiciously, which made the invoker roll his eyes, as if he had read what Nero was thinking, “I just bribed an officer so that he lent me the report for some minutes.”

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh. It was still illegal but it was better than other alternatives, such as V using his familiars to ‘convince’ them, thing that the invoker was surely capable of.

“So, what you are saying is that those dudes were killed in that club. I still don’t see why that’s important.”

“Well, it is because my theory is that demons are behind those murders.”

Nero frowned, exhaling an incredulous laugh.

“What? But if demons had been involved, people would have noticed, right?”

“Not necessarily”, V began to rotate his cane absentmindedly, “after all, the fact that most part of the demons you have faced are brainless creatures with thirst of blood doesn’t mean that they are the only ones wandering around. There are others that prefer to keep a low profile, going as far as mingling with humans, pretending to be the same as them.”

Nero nodded to himself.

“And which kind of demon are we talking about?”

V leaned back against the armchair.

“Well, I cannot be entirely sure about this but my theory is that we are going to be involved with some succubi.”

Nero didn’t think his eyes could open more until hearing V’s words. The invoker probably misinterpreted his expression because he began to talk with an unnecessary academic tone.

“Some people often mistake them with vampires, but these creatures do not need to drink human blood in order to dominate you. The only requirement to completely fall under their spell and eventually have your soul consumed, which surely would explain the death caused by extreme fatigue, is to perform sexual acts with them and—”

“I _know_ what a succubus is, V”, Nero snapped, causing the invoker to interrupt his speech to look at him with a small smirk.

“Then I think it is evident what role we are going to play”, Nero’s expression must have perfectly shown his confusion because V continued with his green eyes glinting in half-amusement, “tonight, we are going to be a couple of young men in search of some diversion.”

Nero opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again.

“What the fuck...”

“Relax, Nero: you will not be unfaithful to your fiancée in any way. At most, you will only have to _pretend_ to be seduced in order to extract some information from them.”

“Okay, first: I told you already to stop calling Kyrie my fiancée. And second, what the _fuck_? W-why the hell can’t we just go there and beat the crap out of them?!”

“Well, even if it is not very subtle, we could certainly try that approach”, Nero glared at V, hating that he was so damn serene with the whole situation, but the invoker kept talking before he could add anything else, “but I doubt it is very recommendable. After all, the fact that we weren’t attacked in our way here indicates that demons have lost track of us for now, thing that will change if we cause a ruckus here.”

“But the news of us being here will spread the moment we go to talk to those things.”

“Not necessarily, since we can always silence them when we get what we want.”

Nero grunted, accepting V’s explanation against his will but still not being very convinced by it, which made the invoker talk again with a reassuring tone that still had a hint of mocking on it.

“If you feel more at ease, I will take care of the interrogation part. You will only have to be there and cover for me in case things get out of hand.”

Nero looked at V with curiosity. He couldn’t deny that he felt relieved for not having to enter in ‘direct contact’ with _that_ kind of demon, but there was something in V’s calm way of speaking that caught his attention.

“You sound as if you have dealt with these creatures before.”

V’s expression was unreadable as always when answering in a way too natural tone.

“Yes, some time ago.”

The answer left Nero as lost as he was before asking. By then he had already assumed that V was lying about his age because he doubted the man wasn’t close to the thirties, so it wouldn’t be surreal that he had had his encounters with those creatures. But still, V had sounded as if such a thing had happened much longer ago than a mere couple of years, and that was weird to say the least.

“So, now that the plan has been established...”, V pointed at the bag with his eyes, “...make sure to be ready in an hour at most. I will be waiting for you on the entrance.”

While V stood up to approach the door Nero finally opened the bag, his eyes opening once again when seeing its content, consisting of a new set of clothes that he guessed he had to wear to the club. He was about to protest saying that there was nothing wrong with his usual clothes but the invoker had already abandoned the room.

With a resigned sigh he began to get undressed, thinking that probably he wouldn’t give many details about this mission to Kyrie either.

* * *

“Wow, V, I’m impressed how well things go between the kid and you! You even buy him pretty clothes now.”

V was rather proud of himself when he held back the urge of glaring at Griffon, who cackled while they both waited for Nero outside the hotel.

“I only want to avoid him being recognized”, V calmly pointed out, “he may not be as famous as Dante yet, but he is probably known in the Underworld already for that incident in Fortuna, thing that we want to avoid at any cost for tonight.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, but you really took your time in that shop.”

V didn’t say anything, unable to deny such a thing because in retrospective, maybe he could have spent way less than half-an-hour picking something for Nero to wear. But well, since a change of style was necessary, he thought to himself that it would not hurt to choose something that would make the boy look nice.

“Also…”, Griffon looked at V impressed, “...it is just me or you look a little less tense around the kid?”

V’s answer was simply to shrug his shoulders softly, but the bird wasn’t mistaken. After hearing Nero’s story in that cave about his time as a Knight, he had finally realized that his strong reluctance of wanting to know more about Nero, and also of caring in some minimal way about him, surely came from Vergil’s lack of experience in working with someone else. After all, since being left alone when he was little, the older son of Sparda had got used to be on his own, without ever depending on anyone else in order to fulfill his purposes. The only times when he requested external aid consisted of him using others to achieve his goals, but he never had an actual partner with whom work with, except maybe that brief moment in Temen-ni-gru, when he agreed to fight alongside Dante in order to beat Arkham.

Realizing where his thoughts were going, V rapidly pushed them aside, knowing it was dangerous to devote too much time thinking about Vergil’s brother. The matter that currently occupied him was that, up till then, collaborating with Nero had been unknown territory, which surely had led to their initial numerous confrontations, but now that he knew that his behavior towards Nero could easily be explained by his lack of habit in having a partner, he had decided to reduce the overthinking about the matter as much as possible, especially considering that so far their collaboration was being rather productive.

“Oh, here he is!”

When hearing Griffon, V’s attention shifted to the hotel entrance, in time to see Nero going through it dressing in the new [clothes](https://www.fantasmagoria.eu/images/uploader/or/1188x1584.g/orkus-t-shirt-punk-rave-mens-wt-558-bk.jpg?t=639553), hands tucked in the pockets of the also new black [jacket](https://www.fantasmagoria.eu/images/uploader/dr/564x752.g/dracarys-mens-sweater-punkrave-2.jpg?t=370721) with the hood on. He found himself eying the boy from head to toe. Well, certainly the outfit looked good on Nero, and there was absolutely nothing wrong for thinking such a thing, since it was a purely, objective fact.

“You could have chosen easier pants to wear, you know?”, Nero cursed, “why the hell these things have to wear belts on the knees? It’s uncomfortable as hell.”

V rolled his eyes, beginning to walk with Nero promptly following him.

“At least they are in better state than the dirty ones you use to wear.”

“Hey, they are just old, not dirty”, Nero signaled at V, “and how it is that you haven’t changed?”

“Because my clothes were acceptable.”

V’s deadpan answer would have surely made Nero protest if it wasn’t because Griffon intervened again.

“Wow, you nailed the size of the clothes, V. You surely have the boy’s measures under control—”

This time V couldn’t _not_ react by clapping his fingers in order to make Griffon disappear. He felt Nero next to him holding back a laughter but he pretended not to notice while walking in silence towards the club, as if Griffon’s comment hadn’t happened in the first place.

* * *

The fastest way to reach the nightlife area was via bus, which they proceeded to ride. In more than one occasion Nero had been called oblivious, saying that he sometimes didn’t see certain things even if they were under the nose, but this time even him realized that V and him were attracting several glances, coming from young women and men whose destination seemed to be the same as theirs.

Nero thought that such a thing would surely stop once they climbed down the stairs leading to the [club](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b0/76/14/b0761452951da6bb381c0fc5533ef5d2.jpg), after V, once again, subtly bribed the doorman so that they could enter without invitation. However, his hopes remained as a wishful thinking, because even if the place was absolutely crowded with most part of the people gathering around the [platform](https://www.visibleprogression.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Strip-club-promotion-1.jpg.webp) where a couple of dancers were performing, the too bright spotlights installed in the place and that blinded him from time to time allowed him to see and feel several stares directed at both V and him.

“Let’s go further inside.”

The music was so loud that V had to practically speak in his ear so that he could hear him. When the invoker began to lead the way, Nero was about to suggest that maybe he had to go first since he had a stronger complexion and could push his way through the people more easily. However, they hadn’t any problem in reaching the center of the club until finishing on the border of the platform, since except a couple of intoxicated people who were about to step on the invoker and that left rather hastily after his one coldly glared at them, the rest of the club visitors automatically let the man through, somehow detecting that pushing him wouldn’t be a good idea.

“So…”, Nero said, looking around uncomfortably, “...now what?”

Nero frowned when V smirked at him with amusement.

“It looks like you aren’t very used to frequent this kind of places.”

Nero snorted, rolling back his shoulders to remove his jacket in a way that made several people follow the movement. He almost regretted doing it but it was hot as hell inside there and that jacket didn’t help.

“Well, in Fortuna going to this kind of places was tilted as ‘debauchery’ so no, I never came”, he couldn’t prevent a grimace when a music even more scandalous began to sound, “not that I'd have come even if it had been allowed.”

V nodded to himself, his surprised grin still in place.

“I would have never imagined that you entered the ‘good boy’ category.”

Nero glared at V, but it was evident the last was trying to get on his nerves so he simply decided to play the card he had let it pass later.

“Neither would I that you’d be paying so much attention to guess my measures.”

Nero didn’t bother to hide a smirk when V tensed next to him, clearly unamused by the comment.

“That’s the problem with being observant: you even notice details you do not care about.”

Nero huffed, but before he could find a new reply V reached inside his pockets, extracting something that he placed in his hand. Nero took a rapid glance at it, recognizing a silver rosary.

“Keep this with you. It is a surprisingly strong weapon against this kind of demons.”

Nero stored it in his pocket, turning to V again.

“You never answered my question”, Nero realized then, “how exactly are we going to find those succubi?”

“It won’t be necessary. They will come after us.”

Nero looked at him with skepticism, leaning his elbows back on the platform.

“And how are you sure about that?”

“First, because succubi prefer to avoid big groups and usually attack in pairs. And second, because although if necessity strikes, they would extract energy from any human, they have quite a liking for aesthetics and prefer to focus on young, attractive people.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief, especially because the man had talked with a matter of fact tone, as if saying that he was attractive was a fact that didn’t leave room for doubt. Before he could even think why such a sentence had felt as a boost to his ego, his instincts put him in alert. With the same sensation he had every time he rushed into battle, he looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of his discomfort.

It didn’t take much to find it:

Several meters away from them a couple of dancers dressed in respective red and black [lingerie](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/7f/6d/6a7f6d90cf352b53e3b857fa1702d7fe.jpg) and high heels were taking a rest on the counter bar, talking to each other but with their eyes fixed on them. V had noticed the succubi’s presence too, and proceeded to catch their attention by a soft movement of his chin. Nero knew the invoker was only following the plan, but still when V’s call caused both ladies to approach while smiling, he couldn’t help to tense, which made V talk through his teeth while keeping his grin in place.

“Nero, you are supposed to look like someone who wants to be seduced, not like someone who is about to kill anyone that gets close.”

“It’s easier said than done”, Nero muttered back, forcing another (tense) smile as the lady with short, curly black hair dressed in black focused her attention on him while licking her lips, “what the hell I’m supposed to do?”

“Hold up. I will take one of them to a more private place to take care of everything.”

“Again, easier said than done. What the hell I do if she wants to— _you know_?”

“Simple: offer her a drink and play hard to get.”

Nero was honestly considering the possibility of murdering V right then and there for the completely useless advice, but since the succubi were already exactly in front of them, Nero could just think a set of rapid ‘ _Fuck_ ’ before the succubus in red, a tall woman with long, red hair and sharp violet eyes who seemed to have taken a like in V, began to talk.

“I can’t believe that such nice gentlemen are still alone tonight”, her smiled turned more seductive, “are you perhaps waiting for someone?”

Nero managed to keep his eyes from leaving their orbits when V chuckled, talking with a lower tone than usual that sounded like velvet.

“Not anymore it seems.”

Nero remembered that, supposedly, he had to show interest in the other succubus, but it was difficult to pay attention to her when his partner was sounding all sexy next to him...and wait a minute, where the hell _that thought_ had come from?

“And what about you, blue eyes?”, fortunately Nero focused again when the succubus in black suddenly batted her eyelashes at him, “you are also looking for some diversion?”

Nero opened his mouth before even knowing what to reply, which made V intervene in his place.

“In fact, he has confessed to me he wanted to invite you to a drink, but he is too shy to admit it.”

“Awww~ I love the shy ones”, Nero made his best to keep still as the woman tiptoed to whisper the next sentence in his ear, “some of them can be absolute beasts in bed.”

The woman ended the sentence nudging her nose softly against his ear, the simple gesture making his heart accelerate. Shit, it was the last time that he agreed to one of V’s plans so easily. So far, this one was being the worst for sure.

“And what about you, gothic boy?”, the red succubus inquired with a smile as sharp as her eyes, settling her arms around V’s neck, who automatically placed his hands on her hips in a gesture that came out way too naturally, “you’re planning to invite me to a drink as well?”

V chuckled again.

“Absolutely. However, I would prefer to do it in a more private place.”

The succubus in red hummed to herself, but her look was inquisitive when talking next.

“Do you know that that kind of privacy has a price?”

V whispered the next sentence in the woman’s ear, but Nero could still hear it.

“I do, and I am more than willing to pay for it.”

The invoker completed the sentence softly nipping at the woman’s earlobe, causing this one to sigh appreciatively. Nero didn’t know why, but he felt a pang of annoyance when seeing the supposedly cold invoker with zero interest in human relationships and who avoided all his attempts of personal questions being so damn comfortable around an enemy.

“Follow me then”, the succubus in red purred against V’s mouth, grabbing one of the lapels of his coat to guide him further inside the club. The invoker threw a last glance to Nero, nodding imperceptibly before following the woman, gesture that Nero decided to interpret as a hopeful ‘ _I’ll finish as soon as possible_ ’.

“Uhm…”, when hearing the succubus, Nero finally shifted his attention to her, finding the woman looking at him with amusement, “...are you sure you don’t want to join them?”

Nero blinked, completely at a loss.

“What?”

“Well, you were staring at your friend with much interest, so if you pay a little more, you can ask Red to perform a trio with you both—”

“ _What_?! No no no no”, Nero immediately kicked away with all his force the image that the succubus’ suggestion had planted in his head, hoping not to blush when saying the following sentence, “I-I prefer spending the night with you.”

He didn’t realize how the sentence had sounded until seeing the satisfied smirk the succubus offered him.

“Oh, I see you aren’t so shy anymore, blue eyes”, again, Nero tried not to flinch when the woman pressed herself against him, caging him against the platform by settling her hands on either side of his body, “let’s go for that quick drink and then we can begin the actual fun~.”

The next five minutes were probably the longest Nero had ever experienced, and despite all his efforts to make the beer he had ordered last as long as possible, at some point the succubus in black got tired of waiting. He had barely regained his balance after the succubus dragged him to the dancefloor with surprising force when the woman began to sensually dance with him, or, more accurately, to grind her body against his own without any shame.

With the first shock of pleasure that assaulted him due to the woman’s sensuous movements, Nero felt his heart accelerate once again, heavy heat traversing by all his body. He couldn’t recall the exact moment when he decided to enclose his arms around the woman’s waist, neither when the woman’s hands had traveled up his exposed arms and biceps until reaching his neck to enclose her arms around it in a tight embrace. The only thing he knew was that that numb sensation invading his senses didn’t feel too bad. In fact, if felt incredibly _good_ , to the point that when the woman forced his head down to reach the side of his neck he let it happen, not bothering to hide a soft moan when she began to lick against his neck, though always avoiding touching the silver necklace that Kyrie had given him...

Wait. _Kyrie_?

When the name of his girlfriend came to his mind, Nero immediately snapped out of the trance he had accidentally fallen in, by grabbing the succubus’ arms to push her away from him, startling her.

“Wait, what’s wrong?”, she asked, her confusion turning into rather honest disappointment when Nero cursed and began to walk away from her and towards the private room where V had disappeared some minutes ago. Shit, those creatures were dangerous for sure. If he hadn’t remembered Kyrie at that moment maybe he would have allowed her to go even further, and all due to V’s fucking master plan.

He took a deep breath while pushing his way through the noisy, mostly intoxicated crowd, reminding himself that maybe blaming V’s plan wasn’t entirely fair, and that he was simply frustrated because his resistance to succubi’ powers was lower than he had anticipated.

By when he reached the private room, he had calmed down almost completely, but his irritation came back at full force when catching a glimpse of V and the succubus inside the room, thanks to the transparent crystal of the room’s door.

Well, Nero thought to himself while walking towards the room with heavy, brusque steps, if _that_ was what V meant by interrogating a succubus, like hell if he was going to wait the fucking night long so that he finished.

* * *

After being guided to the [private room](https://stagreisen.fr/images/e_product_image/full/58a2251c7b85f_goldfingers_interier_08.jpg), no more casual conversation was needed, since the moment the door closed behind them V was pushed against the long, red sofa invading most part of the room with the succubus comfortably straddling his lap. V let her begin to loosen his vest while initiating a slow, deep kiss that he returned without hesitation, while settling his hand on the exposed skin of her back. The woman moaned excessively loud for his liking when his tongue expertly joined hers, beginning to grind down against him while setting her arms around his body, the round shape of her breasts rubbing softly against his now exposed chest with each up-down movement.

He could feel that tingling sensation invading his body, product of the lesser demon trying to use her power in him in an attempt to make him get lost in the lust and fall under her domination. There was no way that he fell for such a weak power, but even if he could perfectly keep it in check, in that merely human form the succubus’ power was affecting him more than it should. After all, he may be Vergil’s human part, and he may share the older son of Sparda’s memories, which included more than one encounter of this nature, but even if he instinctively knew what to do and how certain touches were going to feel, his vessel right now had never come to experience them, which was probably provoking that his pants felt more restrictive since the succubus began with her sensual undulations.

V would have liked to make the creature lower her guard even more, since only a couple of minutes had passed since she initiated her seduction act and probably she was still wary, but when feeling her fingers lingering down his body in a feathery contact, V decided he could not allow himself to wait further. When the tip of her fingers began to sneak inside the front of his pants, he grabbed her wrist, making her break the kiss startled though her expression kept being as raptured as before.

“Not so fast, my dear”, V said against her lips, a smirk playing at his lips, “the night is long after all.”

He finished the sentence by shifting their positions, making the succubus exhale a rather sincere moan when her back ended against the seats of the sofa with V pinning her against the synthetic material.

“Oh? You are stronger than you look— _ah_!”

The succubus arched voluptuously against him when V sucked at the side of her neck, making sure that his legs were on either side of hers to prevent her from wrapping them around him. She did it with her arms though, sneaking them under the coat to rake her long, sharp nails down his skin, making V let out an involuntary appreciative groan while reaching back towards the back pocket of his pants.

One advantage of dealing with succubi was that they were as weak for pleasure as their victims, since the more intense the experience, the more energy they could take from them. Besides, despite her previous comment, V could feel that the succubus thought she had the upper hand in physical terms, which allowed him to catch her off guard easily by rapidly extracting the silver rosary from his back pocket in order to press the chain against her neck, keeping the extremes tightly placed on either side of her head against the sofa.

Finding herself suddenly deprived of air and with the sacred jewel burning her skin, the instinctive reflex of the succubus was to reach towards the chain against her neck with both hands in an attempt to loosen it, but the fact that V had the prudency of also coating it with holy water before returning to the hotel made the action futile, increasing that way the effect of the weapon in order to prevent the succubus from turning  into her real form, against whom V doubted to have a chance alone.

“I would stop resisting if I were you”, V warned with a smooth tone that contrasted with the pressure he was applying to the chain, the necessary to keep the succubus at bay but not enough to strangle her. When feeling herself cornered the succubus growled in a voice that had nothing of her previous feminine mawkishness.

“You damn human”, she hissed, throwing a scratch to V’s face that this one avoided easily. She then reached for his arm, making the corners of V’s vision twitch when her sharp nails dug into the almost healed injury through the bandage. Despite the piercing pain that assaulted him, he kept his expression as imperturbable as a mask while increasing the force of the chain a little more, making the demon gasp and finally release his arm to try to push away the chain from her once again.

At that moment, the door of the private room violently opened and a rather flushed, breathless Nero stomped on it, closing it behind with a forceful kick.

“Okay, I’m tired of waiting”, Nero snapped, approaching the sofa in a couple of long steps, “so you better begin getting that information _right now_ or—”

Nero stopped in his tracks with his mouth open, finally realizing what was happening. V was about to sarcastically comment that that was exactly what he was doing when the succubus tried to make the most of Nero’s distraction to set herself free, forcing V to increase a little more the pressure, causing the woman to actually fight for air and Nero to gulp, probably because one thing was to fight against demons and another to see one looking scarily human in the process of being strangled.

“Now now, there is no motive to make things more difficult”, V released a little the chain, his words pissing the demon off even more although by that time she could only manage to throw a poisonous glare at him, “the only thing we need from you is some of your knowledge. Share it, and both my partner and I will leave you and your kin alone.”

The succubus managed to laugh humorlessly through her difficult breathing.

“So you attack me and then you plan me to help you?”, she managed to spat, “you are funnier than you look, little human.”

V merely grinned when hearing the succubus’ threatening tone.

“Oh, you will help us. After all, I’m pretty sure you can’t afford that your true nature is exposed, neither to be blamed for killing three humans.”

The succubus got pale when hearing his calm words.

“It wasn’t me”, V wasn’t expecting hearing something close to fear in the succubus’ voice while she kept talking with difficulty, “and neither any of my sisters. We do _not_ kill. We all agreed of taking the necessary energy of our clients to survive, but that’s all”, the succubus looked at Nero then, who was looking at her with an unsure expression, “so when one of us broke the promise, we took care of it. We didn’t know she had been killing or we’d have stopped her sooner. I swear.”

As if wanting to prove her point to them she stopped struggling, releasing her hands from the chain to place them on either side of her head with her palms facing up in a surrendering position. V observed the demon for some seconds, not releasing his grip at any moment while the she bit her bottom lip because of the burning pain, not making any attempt of moving.

“I think she is telling the truth”, Nero commented after a moment, his tone sounding surprised but also rather secure.

V was still hesitant about what to do, but eventually decided to trust Nero’s instinct (and also his own) and removed the chain to sit back on the sofa, which made the succubus take a deep, raspy breath before beginning to cough while grabbing her neck, half-lying on the sofa.

“Thank you”, she said towards Nero, taking deep breaths while trying to recover.

Still without trusting the creature completely, V reached for the small piece of paper on which he had written the inscription found in the cave.

“These symbols”, V said, offering the demon the paper, “can you read them?”

The succubus, already breathing normally, took the paper V was offering him, her sharp eyes following the encrypted text before nodding.

“I can”, she looked at V, “but before translating anything, you must promise you won’t reveal our identity.”

“We won’t”, V looked at Nero when this one talked on his behalf, “for now. But if someone else dies in this city under strange circumstances, or if someone comes after us because you have talked….”, Nero crossed his arms and raised his chin to look at the demon, “...we will come back. And your identity being revealed will be the last of your worries. Understood?”

It took V a moment to realize that his mouth was half-opened and he had to close it. It was probably the first time that he heard Nero use such a commanding, threatening tone with someone, and he didn’t know why the action made his heart beat faster for a moment. He guessed his body had been affected by that succubus more than he thought, because there wasn’t any other viable explanation for it.

“Oh my”, the succubus chuckled with a seductive smile, “I am half tempted to push my luck to discover what you’d exactly do”, her tone became serious again, though the smile kept on her face, “but I will not. You have my word.”

V decided not to point out that the word of a succubus wasn’t usually to be trusted, since at that moment the woman moved her hand over the paper, causing a small, violet smoke appear around it before returning it to V. He checked the inscription was now in Latin but legible, and nodded towards the woman. He tied his corset-vest again and was about to stand up to leave the room with Nero but at the last moment he turned around. His jaw tensed involuntarily when seeing his rosary had left a small scar on the demon’s neck, and although he was sure it would heal in no time because demons in general had a way faster recovery than humans, he still reached for the inner pocket of his coat to extract a couple of more bills from his wallet.

“For the information.”

The demon looked up at him with surprise when seeing V was offering her almost the double of the money a private session costed. She showed a toothy smile at him before accepting the money, storing it in her cleavage before standing up to approach him. Since he didn’t detect any dangerous aura around her, he allowed her to grab his face between her hands to kiss him once again. Immediately, he felt a rush energy running through his body, and when the woman separated after some seconds, licking his bottom lip playfully, the background pain he had been feeling in his arm had vanished completely, making him realize the demon had used her powers to heal the injury completely.

“At the end it was funny to hang out with you, pretty gothic”, the succubus said, licking her lower lip hungrily, “you sure you don’t want to make the most of your invested money?”

Before V could politely decline the offer, Nero broke the silence snapping the next words.

“You stay if you want but like hell if I’m doing it.”

V looked at the place where Nero was standing some seconds ago while this one abandoned the room, snapping the door opened and closed behind him. He raised a surprised eyebrow, since he was already used to the boy’s brusque nature but this time it had been even more exaggerated.

“Mmm, I love unruly boys”, the succubus exhaled a disappointed sigh, “a pity he doesn’t want to stay longer.”

V simply hummed to himself. He couldn’t talk from experience, since Vergil had never had the least interest in being too attached to anyone, but he guessed that for someone as Nero who had been engaged practically all his life with the same person, tonight mission could have been a little too much. Not wanting to analyze why such a thing didn’t settle well within him, V was about to follow the boy out of the room before he could put much more distance between them when the succubus spoke again.

“One last thing”, she looked at V with curiosity with her arms crossed, “are you perhaps related to the Legendary Knight Sparda? Because your smell is kind of similar.”

V offered the succubus one of his cryptic grins, shrugging his shoulders.

“Perhaps.”

The succubus half-closed her eyes with a smile but didn’t ask further, on the contrary than him, since the demon’s words had made him remember certain person of his memories.

“By the way, Nevan managed to come back safely to the Underworld?”

The succubus blinked, surely not expecting that V knew about the Lightning Witch.

“Yes, I heard that The Legendary Devil Hunter released her several years ago. Why?”

V shook his head.

“Nothing. But if you ever see her, please, tell her that Vergil sends his regards.”

With a small nod of his head, V finally abandoned the VIP room, leaving the succubus with her mouth half-opened and chuckling to herself before joining Nero outside.

* * *

Nero was already walking down the main street with his hands tucked inside the pockets of his recovered jacket when V appeared next to him, still riding on Shadow though he invoked the demon back when finally catching Nero.

“Thank you for waiting.”

He answered V’s sarcastic comment with a huff.

“Sorry, but knowing about your interrogation methods, I didn’t know how much time it was going to take you say goodbye.”

Since Nero was stubbornly looking in front of him, he missed the way V frowned.

“Well, I believe that my ‘interrogation methods’, as you call them, were pretty useful, since we managed to decipher the message.”

Nero barked a laugh, making some people turn their faces to look at them.

“Oh, yeah, they were. But still it took you your damn sweet time to get into it”, when V didn’t say anything Nero looked at him, snorting when seeing the invoker was pretending not to know what he was talking about, “don’t play dumb with me now. Yeah, you got the information, but I don’t think it was necessary to do _all that_ with that woman in order to do so.”

V blinked slowly, before an amused grin that Nero didn’t like one bit formed in his face.

“‘All that’”, he simply repeated, making Nero feel the impulse of using his arm against him.

“You perfectly know what I mean, you jerk: I saw you through the glass. You were just fooling around and eating each other’s faces instead of getting that damn info.”

“Wow wow wow”, Griffon suddenly appeared next to them, uncalled as always, “guys, are you having a lovers quarrel?!”

Nero felt the tip of his ears burn when hearing the bird’s comment, but this time V didn’t make any attempt of calling the familiar back, being busier observing him with interest.

“Alright, for starters…”, V began with a calm tone that just made Nero feel even more annoyed, “...as much as you catalog my behavior as ‘fooling around’, I was simply making sure that the succubus was in a vulnerable position in order to attack her easily”, V smirked again, “so if your concern is that I was wasting time by pursuing some intimate contact with her, do not worry, Nero: that wasn’t my purpose at all.”

“I’m _not_ worried about it”, Nero snapped when V phrased it as if he was annoyed just because the invoker was making out with someone else, because it wasn’t like that _at all_ , “but it would have been nice that you had done it faster so that I wasn’t almost consumed by her friend.”

When hearing his comment, V’s amused expression was replaced by confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Nero insulted himself, regretting having mentioned it.

“Well…”, he scratched the back of his head, but the harm was already done, “...when you both left, that other succubus took me to the dancefloor. And even if nothing happened, I was about to let her...”, he made an ambiguous circular gesture with his left hand before giving up, continuing talking with a cutting tone, “anyway, nothing happened, but it wasn’t funny to be in that kind of weird trance.”

“Trance?”, V repeated in disbelief, “but that has no sense. The only reason why you could have been that much affected by it would be if you were a virgin.”

Since Nero wasn’t expecting V’s words, there was no way that he fought against the blush that crept up his cheeks, causing V’s eyes and mouth to open wide in an expression that, at any other moment, Nero would have considered rather hilarious.

“Wait, so you _are_ a virgin?”

“Can you say it a little louder? I think the people at the other side of the street haven’t fucking heard you.”

“...Are you sure you are willing me to do that?”

Nero half-closed his eyes as his jaw tensed while Griffon began to laugh on the background. He was about to charge his arm for sure this time when V surprised him by settling a conciliatory hand on the mechanical limb, the unexpected gesture making Nero stop mid-action.

“I’m not mocking you”, since that little smirk was still in the invoker’s face it was hard to believe, but V’s words were serious when talking next, “but it’s...surprising. And considering the way I caught you the first day after Urizen’s first encounter, I had just assumed that you had some kind of experience in the matter.”

Nero snorted, but he felt more relaxed now that he knew V wasn’t laughing at him for it.

“Well, thanks to you I still don’t have it.”

“Oh? So I did really interrupt something that day. My apologies then.”

“Cut the crap: you don’t look apologetic at all.”

“You are certainly right: I’m not”, once again, V’s tone regained his usual seriousness, “though if I had known about it, I would probably have suggested another approach for tonight. That was a bit of a miscalculation on my part.”

It was Nero’s turn to blink. He looked at V while crossing his arms, an incredulous smile slowly formed on his face.

“It’s just me or have you just apologized?”

His smile just grew when V gulped softly while tensing.

“I do not recall having said ‘I’m sorry’.”

“You did just now.”

When V glared at him after falling for the trick, Nero simply smiled wider. Maybe he shouldn’t enjoy teasing the invoker that much, but he couldn’t help it: seeing V getting all tense whenever Nero pointed out he had done something good was extremely funny. And also, he would be lying by not admitting that the times he enjoyed V’s retorts were on par with the times when he actually felt bothered by them. Probably, the first won over the second.

“So…”, Griffon surprised them both by intervening again, “...not wanting to ruin the bonding moment, but I’m curious about what that piece of paper says.”

Nero realized then he had completely forgotten about the paper for a moment, and for the surprised expression that briefly passed through V’s face it seemed it had been the same for the invoker. After softly clearing his throat a little awkwardly, V extracted the paper from his pocket, beginning to read it aloud.

“ _Of the primeval Priests assum'd power/When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;/And gave him a place in the north,/Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary./_ ”

Nero sighed with certain exasperation, being about to retort he was tired of incomprehensible poems. However, he remained silent, since at that moment he noticed V’s knuckles turning white while sustaining the paper, which made him shut up and listen to the final verses.

“ _Eternals I hear your call gladly,/Dictate swift winged words, & fear not/To unfold your dark visions of torment._”

When V said the last word, silence fell between them. As usual, it was Nero the one who broke it, but this time he did it by talking with a hesitant tone after detecting the tension surrounding V’s body, more intense than any other time before.

“You know where we have to go next.”

It was an affirmation more than a question, but V still nodded as if it was the second. He raised his eyes from the paper, all the previous banter forgotten when Nero detected something in V’s eyes he had never seen in them before: anxiety.

“I do”, V gulped imperceptibly, his voice sounding slightly more strained when talking next, “we are going to Mallet Island.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course dressing Nero with those clothes was vital for the plot (°∀°)
> 
> Also, lately I have been rewatching DMC3 scenes and when Dante defeats Nevan she says: _"Your father was a handsome devil. But you're no slouch yourself"_. My headcanon is that she has a weakness for Sparda's bloodline (since that comment probably indicates she and Sparda had a thing in the past), and considering how casanova Dante is I doubt nothing happened at least once after the events of DMC3. Therefore, I don't think it's too weird to assume that maybe while Vergil was in the process of invoking Temen-ni-gru he came to also intimate with the lady, which explains V mentioning her in the chapter :P


	9. (May 24) - Care

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly from V’s POV, I think that with justified reasons since Mallet Island is close and that makes the invoker have a lot things rounding his head. However, for Nero’s fans don’t worry because further in the story there will be some chapters more focused on him ;)
> 
> Also, I attach a schema of a [fishing ship](https://fishingheritagecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bridge-deck-view.jpg) I found on the Internet so that it’s easier to imagine certain parts of the chapter :) Also, apologies for all the mistakes when talking about sea terms because my knowledge about them before writing this chapter was zero ^^U.

**_May 24 - 7:45 a.m._ **

Nero knew there was something wrong with V.

Since the night before after they abandoned the club, the invoker had barely spelled a word after reading aloud the message, remaining quiet in their way back to the hotel and only breaking the silence with an absent-minded ‘good night’ when they returned to their respective rooms. Although curiosity was invading him, Nero decided not to press the matter, mainly because the disagreeable numb sensation caused by the succubus hadn’t vanished completely yet, and in order to have the least chance to extract some information from V when he closed himself in he knew he had to be in top notch condition.

However, when waking up the next morning, surprisingly early and feeling rather refreshed after a full night of sleep, the first thing he did was to visit V’s room. Silence was the only thing he obtained as an answer no matter how loud he knocked, so eventually he went to the hotel’s reception, where V had left a message for him, asking him to wait for further instructions.

Not liking very much to be treated as a mere employee, Nero exhaled an annoyed sigh and stopped by the hotel’s buffet, included in the price of the rooms, to make the most of it since he wasn’t sure when they would have time to eat later. He sat then on one of the sofas placed in the hotel’s entrance, leafing through one of the multiple magazines that were scattered around the place.

Almost an hour passed and he was about to come back to his room when he saw V cross the hotel’s front doors. Nero’s first impulse when meeting the invoker half-way the reception’s corridor was to protest for being left behind, but when seeing that the invoker’s eye bags were even more pronounced than the previous day, he closed his mouth, frowning instead.

“Wow, you look like shit.”

This time, Nero thought he probably deserved the glare V threw at him for his not very delicate way to express his concern. However, the invoker purposely ignored his comment, talking next with a tone that sounded resigned, bordering the exasperation.

“Apparently there isn’t any public transportation that can take us to the island. The Ferry has been cancelled the entire week due to the possibility of heavy storm and we cannot allow ourselves to wait that much, so we will have to make an improvised visit to the port.”

Nero frowned.

“Do you think we’ll find someone that agrees to take us there?”

The dangerous grin that adorned V’s face provoked an involuntary shudder travel down Nero’s spine.

“For their sake, I hope so”, V signaled towards the elevators with his eyes, “go grab your things. I will take care of the checkout so that we can leave.”

V passed by his side to approach the reception counter, not leaving him time to add anything else. Nero took a deep breath while following the invoker’s instructions. V’s attitude right now made him remember their first not very fortunate interactions, but he decided to let it pass for now. After all, it was evident V had barely slept, and that fact combined with the bad news of the lack of transport was surely having an effect in his easily irritable personality, so he would try to be patient not to engage himself in a talk with V that had all the chances in developing into a full argument.

Predictably, the trip towards the port was made in complete silence. Once there, he followed V towards the boat rental office, where he talked to the man in charge in order to find a solution for their trip. The same as it had happened with the ferry, the office didn’t want to take responsibility of renting any boats due to the weather forecast, but after some insistence the man told them that there was a fishing ship that nevertheless planned to set off, and that maybe could accept a couple of extra passengers.

By when they arrived at the [docks](https://cdn2.webdamdb.com/1280_1WbcxF7jpvUa.jpg?1509623145) where the fishing ship was, the whole crew, composed of four men around their forties, a boy that was still a teenager, and a black man on his fifties with the pretty recognizable aura of captain around him, were already on the ship’s lower deck, almost ready to go.

“Alright, gentlemen, last chance to check you have brought anything we need because we are not turning back for any reason this time”, the man offered a pointed look at the kid, who gulped, “you hear me, son?”

“Aye, sir!”, the teenager said while approaching the hand to his temple in a completely serious way that made the others laugh.

“You sure you haven’t forgotten your teddy bear now, Finn?”

“I don’t have a teddy bear!”

“A dolly then? It suits you more.”

“I don’t have that either!”

“Oh, really, then why are you so red?”

“Excuse me, Mr. Jenkins I presume?”

The old man turned towards V and him when the invoker addressed him, frowning with curiosity.

“Yes, that’s me. But be quick, kid: those fishes aren’t going to wait for us and I wouldn’t like to lose them—”

“We need to go to Mallet Island. We were told that you could take us there for the adequate price, is that correct?”

Nero stared at V when this one began to talk before the man had finished in an excessively impatient tone, which obviously caused the captain to frown for now just with surprise. Now he regretted having let V do the talk.

“Mallet Island?”, it was the boy called Finn the one who talked, gulping next, “but I heard that place is haunted.”

The kid’s comment provoked a wave of resigned sighs before the men began to talk among them.

“Jeez, Jim, I told you should stop putting nonsense in the kid’s head!”

“It’s _not_ nonsense! The last ships that approached the place never came back!”

“Pffff, yeah, sure: like those islands where mermaids could be heard that resulted to be damn dolphins.”

“Gentlemen”, the captain didn’t need to raise the voice much so that the crew calmed down, although still talking between whispers while Mr. Jenkins addressed V again, “I honestly don’t believe in those stories. The real world is dangerous enough as it is to add ghosts to the party—”

“Good then”, V, again, didn’t let the man finish, who this time looked clearly annoyed by it, “according to my estimations, renting a ship of this kind with crew included would cost around 300$ per day”, while talking, V extracted an envelope from an inner pocket of his coat, and a thin piece of paper from it that he offered to the man, “considering we are two and that the island is quite far away, I’m willing to pay twice that price if you make sure you arrive there today.”

After a small pause the captain took the paper V was handling, who didn’t seem to notice the half-amused and half-annoyed expressions of the rest of the crew, on the contrary than Nero, who was simply waiting for the bomb to explode.

“And this is…”, the captain said, examining the paper.

“A check”, V explained, misinterpreting that the man didn’t know what it was when it was evident that the captain’s examination was pure theatre, “it functions similarly than actual cash. Unfortunately, I do not possess this quantity in cash and I highly doubt you accept credit card, but you can exchange it in any bank of Catterville when—”

This time, it was the man who interrupted V’s speech by tearing the check in small pieces, his eyes still fixed on V who didn’t change his expression, the only hint that the man’s action had irritated him being the way he gripped his cane with more force.

“You are right, kid. I do not accept anything different than cash, but even if you brought the money, Mallet Island is a too big detour.”

When V talked next he still sounded smooth, but Nero tensed, since by now he knew V well enough to know that calm was faked.

“Perhaps you would like to reconsider.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Are you sure? I am willing to increase the offer, so you would be clearly losing benefits in case of _not_ taking it.”

“Yeah, maybe, but you know what? I reached an age in which I prefer to sacrifice easy money if I don’t like what it involves.”

V frowned.

“I thought you did not believe in ghost stories.”

The man laughed, shaking his head.

“No, kid, the island is not the problem”, Mr. Jenkins kept talking without raising his voice, but his annoyance was palpable by then, “it’s your attitude what I don’t like one bit, and since this is _my_ ship and I decide who boards it or not, I choose to lose benefits for the sake of not standing certain kind of people. Have a good day.”

Mr. Jenkins touched the front of his cap as a goodbye gesture while the crew was barely able to muffle their laughs, which made V’s face become cold as a stone. The man also offered Nero an apologetic smile, as if he was sympathizing with him for having to travel with V, but Nero missed the gesture, since he was busy freezing when realizing that the invoker’s tattoos were beginning to vanish.

Detecting the invoker’s dangerous aura, he automatically stepped between him and the captain, beginning to talk rapidly.

“Wait”, Mr. Jenkins turned around again, looking at Nero this time, “look, I get it’s troublesome for you but we _really_ need to go to that island.”

Feeling V’s eyes buried in the back of his head, Nero continued talking. He knew he was surely going to sound like a mad man but considering the man was already refusing to take them to the island, they had nothing to lose.

“Have you heard about what happened in Red Grave?”

“You mean those people who died because of strange plants?”, Finn inquired, making Nero nod while one of the other sailors hit the back of the kid’s neck, probably for having intruded in the conversation.

“Yeah, that. We are trying to know how to beat those things, and we think we could find clues about how to do it in that island”, he looked at the captain again, “I know that it sounds crazy but I swear it’s the truth.”

The crew interchanged unsure looks while Mr. Jenkins’ gaze turned inquisitive, crossing his arms.

“So, you are saying that Finn has been right all this time and that demons actually exist?”

Nero nodded with conviction.

“Yes”, he exhaled a nervous chuckle, “although I guess it’s not the best way to convince you to go.”

“Oh no, on the contrary. Now we have an actual motive to go.”

Nero opened his eyes more when hearing the captain’s prompt reply, together with the excited murmurs of affirmation.

“So you will take us there?”

Mr. Jenkins hummed to himself.

“Well, it depends: we cannot take you to Mallet directly, since our priority is to stop in Pitchbale to deliver the goods we manage to fish, so probably we won’t arrive there until tomorrow.”

Nero looked at V, whose expression was still tense while exhaling a resigned sigh.

“I guess there is nothing to do about it.”

“No, there isn’t”, Mr. Jenkins said with a definitive tone, “however, there’s still the issue with the cash.”

Noticing V’s irritation, Nero rapidly talked again to prevent the invoker from ruining the deal.

“Isn’t there any cashier around here where we can extract money?”

Mr. Jenkin shook his head.

“The closest is back in the main city, but I’m afraid we can’t allow ourselves to wait for you, since tides here are pretty intense and we need to go within 15 minutes at most if we want to have a good catch.”

Nero exhaled a sigh, opening his mouth to try to convince the man to accept V’s check when an idea that he didn’t like very much came to his mind. He hesitated for a moment, thinking about any other alternative, but when finding none he talked.

“Here”, he missed the way V’s eyes opened more for a moment when he reached around his neck to remove his pendant, “it’s not cash but it’s made of silver and the jewel in the middle is a small ruby, so it surely covers more than this trip.”

Mr. Jenkins looked at him in disbelief while the crew also observed the jewel he was sustaining in front of the captain. The last took with delicacy the pendant but Nero didn’t release it immediately, looking at the man with a deathly serious expression.

“Just to be clear, I’m not giving it to you. I’m only lending it temporarily until we pay you the money, _but_ I’m recovering it. Understood?”

Without being able to help it, his tone acquired a hint of threat at the end, which left pretty clear that he planned to recover the jewel one way or another. For a moment he feared that his attitude made Mr. Jenkins reconsider the offer of taking them to the island, but the man offered him a reassuring smile and nodded.

“Of course, kid. I can see that it’s really important to you. I may be a sailor but not a pirate.”

Nero nodded, believing in the man’s honesty while finally releasing the pendant. The man observed it for some seconds and put it in the front pocket of his blue jacket, gesturing next towards the deck with a movement of his head while looking at V with a serious expression.

“You better thank your friend. If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t be boarding the ship right now.”

Nero almost strained his neck to look at V, who was already opening his mouth to retort something. Fortunately, when seeing his ‘ _Don’t you dare_ ’ warning glance, the invoker reluctantly closed it, following the captain inside while ignoring the not very amicable faces of the rest of the crew, with the exception of Finn who was observing him with barely concealed curiosity.

With a sigh, Nero also stepped inside, getting ready for that argument that had been delayed already too long.

* * *

“What the hell was that?”

V frowned, turning towards Nero when this one snapped those words the moment they entered the small, not very clean room where they would sleep that night, situated under the deck and consisting of four [berths](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0e/42/e7/b9/4-berth-seamans-cabin.jpg) that looked far from comfortable.

“You will have to be more specific, Nero”, he said tiredly, leaving his shoulder bag on the lower right bed while Nero did the same with the lower left.

“Before, in the docks”, Nero crossed his arms, looking at V with a frown, “were you really going to use your familiars against them?”

V, who was still checking the remaining supplies inside his bag, stopped to look at Nero when detecting an annoying hint of reproach in his tone.

“If it makes you feel better, killing them was not among my options”, he replied with a serene tone that did not match the harshness present in his words and eyes, “however, considering they were being rather unreasonable, I decided to be prepared in case some forceful convincing was needed.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief, exhaling an incredulous laugh.

“Oh god, so you really think _they_ were the unreasonable ones”, V frowned again, which made Nero continue after scratching the back of his head, “look, I’m not trying to pick a fight, but before, the only jerk around was you.”

V half-closed his eyes, unamused.

“Excuse me?”

Nero didn’t look particularly impressed by his cold question, since he simply crossed his arms again while talking with determination.

“Sorry, but it was you the first who began making demands without even letting that man finish a single sentence.”

V snorted softly, closing his bag again.

“Well, it is not my fault that Mr. Jenkins can afford wasting time, but unfortunately we do not have that privilege.”

“Ehm, no: I’m pretty sure the man was simply trying to answer your questions, but _you_ were too busy ordering around as usual to notice.”

V gritted his teeth, focusing on Nero again. He hadn’t liked how that ‘as usual’ had sounded, as if Nero was implying that he behaved like that with the boy as well when V was pretty sure that, since he acknowledged Nero as his equal partner, he didn’t do such a thing anymore.

Probably that was the cause why his tone came out more condescending that he had intended, making Nero frown even more in the process.

“From my point of view, the only thing I did was to demand someone else’s services while offering a rather generous pay in return, and what I obtained was that man barking while rejecting my proposals.”

Nero opened and close his mouth a couple of times in disbelief before talking again, adopting a light exasperated tone that bothered V more rather than if he had talked with anger.

“See, that’s the problem with you. You are so damn obsessed with stopping Urizen that you don’t care about anything else”, V’s eyebrow twitched imperceptibly when hearing Nero’s careless statement, “and for the record, money can’t solve everything. Maybe it worked with that succubus of the club. Maybe for her the extra cash you gave her was enough to forget that you attacked her when she wasn’t the culprit, but sometimes people prefer some basic respect. And I’m sure that if you showed it to them instead of trying to buy them, I bet that you’d obtain better results than when you talk to them as if they were your slaves—”

V’s body moved by instinct when hearing that last word leaving Nero’s mouth.

He closed the distance that existed between Nero and him to grab the front of the boy’s clothes with his left hand, approaching until his face was inches apart from Nero’s shocked one to hiss the next words.

“You have _no_ idea about what being a slave means”, V was so busy trying that his self-control didn’t snap completely that he failed to notice the way Nero’s eyes traveled from his eyes to his lips for a brief moment, “slaves have no voice, no vote, no right to choose or act, not even the right to _think_ for themselves, so I can guarantee that my way of dealing with people is way kinder than that. I agree that sometimes my interactions leave a little to be desired, and that they may not be the most adequate on certain circumstances. But, unfortunately, for someone who has spent most part of his life focusing on surviving and on getting things done because there was _no one else_ willing to do what was needed at the moment, the time devoted to study the proper social etiquette was scarce. And to be honest, hurting the sensibilities of susceptible people is the last of the things that still keep me awake at night.”

V finished the speech taking a deep breath, at almost the same time that Nero stopped holding his. Feeling the boy’s breathing so close made V extremely aware of their proximity, which caused him to finally release Nero’s now slightly wrinkled t-shirt and take a step backwards, while a feeling of incommodity settled within him for having lost his temper in such a way.

Innerly wanting to avoid the boy’s gaze but refusing to do so for the risk of looking even weaker, V kept his eyes stubbornly focused on Nero’s ones, which were now shining with stupor and concern. He was in the process of finding a more or less plausible excuse to leave that suddenly suffocating room when a knock sounded at the door and Finn slipped inside without further invitation.

“Hey there! I brought a change of sheets for your beds”, the boy seemed to finally notice the thick tense atmosphere because he observed alternatively, his tone sounding cautious next, “uhm, have I interrupted something?”

V was still looking at Nero while answering with a voice that sounded almost as smooth as usual.

“No. We have just finished.”

Without giving Nero time to gather his thoughts, he passed by his side and by Flinn’s one to go towards the upper deck, managing to hear Nero exhale a curse when he was already leaving the room behind. When he reached the lower deck, all the crew was there getting everything ready for the fishing, the captain included. V felt everyone’s eyes on him, but he simply ignored the glances while climbing up the stairs towards the upper deck, where he approached the furthest end of the ship to lean his arms on the railing.

He exhaled a deep breath, the breeze helping clear up his mind after what had happened in the berths room. Objectively, he knew that at any other moment the boy’s words wouldn’t have made him react that much, but Nero using that term so lightly, and especially his previous statement of him not caring enough, had come up in the worst moment.

Precisely, the main catalyst for the whole situation they were facing now was that Vergil _cared_ , despite all his attempts of preventing such a fact from showing. If he hadn’t cared about what happened to his family, he wouldn’t have spent so many years planning his revenge against Mundus; and despite his rivalry with Dante, if he hadn’t cared about his brainless little brother, neither he would have prevented the last from falling into the demon world with him more than two decades ago.

The same way, if Vergil had been the devil he always sought to be, probably he wouldn’t have been corrupted by having his self stolen, and for sure V’s situation would be different now. For starters, probably he wouldn’t even exit, but in case of doing it he was sure he wouldn’t be so frustratingly weak. He wouldn’t need to depend on others, being his familiars or Nero, so much in battle, or be fighting against time to defeat Urizen. And, definitely, he would have a stronger will not to give importance to things that should be irrelevant.

V exhaled a frustrated sigh, rubbing his eyes tiredly. It was evident that his general difficulty to sleep was beginning to affect him, not to mention that last night insomnia had struck stronger than ever after the revelation of their next destination, which made that every time that he closed his eyes, the visions that _he_ had uselessly tried to bury came afloat more vivid than ever. Eventually, he preferred to stay awake rather than revive those memories once again, which had surely led to his lack of patience with the captain of the ship and, eventually, also with Nero.

At that moment, making the most of the fact that the other people couldn’t see them from the lower deck, both Griffon and Shadow appeared next to him. The panther simply sat close to him while the bird landed on the railway, looking in the same direction than V.

“So, am I the only one who thinks that our next holidays spot is really shitty?”

V exhaled a humorless chuckle while Shadow growled softly as an answer, agreeing with the bird.

“Yes, not my favorite destination either”, V said with irony, causing Griffon to squawk.

“Do you really think we’ll find something there? Because it wouldn’t be funny to go there for nothing.”

“No, it wouldn’t”, V conceded, interlacing his fingers over the railing, “but some unpleasant memories are not going to stop us from keeping investigating.”

“‘Unpleasant memories’”, Griffon snorted, “V, an ‘unpleasant memory’ is when you remember that you accidentally peed on your bed when you weren’t _that_ small, but what Mallet is going to bring...”, the bird’s feathers fluffed when he shivered, “...I mean, it’s going to be rough for Shadow and me, so it will be even worse for you… What now?!”

Griffon’s last question was directed to Shadow, who grunted softly while glaring at the bird in a way that clearly said ‘You’re talking too much’. The panther’s reaction put the hint of a smile in V’s face. He distractedly rubbed the feline’s head, exhaling a soft sigh before getting lost in his thoughts again.

The bird may have a big mouth by nature, but as much as V hated to admit it, Griffon's words were rather certain: going back to Mallet was going to be hard, since it was the ultimate representation of Vergil’s failure, of the torment Vergil had suffered during all those years enslaved under Mundus’ service. However, he refused to let those memories win, to let Urizen get the upper hand because he wasn’t strong enough to completely get over what happened in the past, so even if he needed to search every nook and cranny of that island, he did not plan to leave empty handed. He swore that to himself.

V eventually lost track of how much time he had been staring at the hypnotic movement of the water under them, the sound of the waves impacting against the ship and the unintelligible conversations of the crew in the deck sounding as a background. At some point though, he felt someone approaching. He was sure it wasn’t Nero because the boy wasn’t precisely subtle when walking and those steps lacked the strength the young devil hunter had, so he called the familiars back, not wanting to risk to create more animadversion with the superstitious members of the crew.

He turned around in time to see Finn standing next to stairs, looking at him with hesitation with his hands hooked inside his pockets.

“Hi. The others are going to throw the net already. It will take some time until the fishes bite but it’s something rather cool to see.”

Finn didn’t move after speaking, waiting for his answer even if for his tone of voice it was evident that he was expecting that V rejected the offer, which made the invoker do the exact opposite.

“Alright.”

The kid’s eyes opened wide when hearing his answer before showing a big smile that took V by surprise.

“Great! Come: I’ll show you the best spot to watch.”

V blinked when the boy disappeared behind the pilot’s cabin. He thought that his answer would bother the kid, not the exact opposite, but now it was too late to reject the suggestion so he exhaled a resigned sigh, following the kid. When he also circled the cabin, Finn was already sitting on the top of a crate, legs crossed and an enthusiastic expression in his face.

“I’m still 15 so theoretically I can’t go fishing yet”, Finn explained while V half-listened to him, looking over the rails at the other members continuing with the verifications, “but my granda—I-I mean, captain Jenkins lets me stay here to have some practice while I get my fishing license.”

V hummed, briefly noting the detail of that kid being related to the captain in case the man eventually refused to take them close to the island or in returning Nero’s pendant. And speaking of the boy, it had been a while now since he last saw him.

As if he had been summoned, at that moment Nero joined the others in the lower deck. The boy looked around, pinpointed V looking from the upper deck, and after a tense moment of awkwardly looking at each other he waved his hand towards him, though not making any initial attempt of getting close. Since their argument was still recent, V simply nodded towards him, causing Nero to do the same before approaching one of the members of the crew. For the way their conversation soon turned enthusiastic, V deduced that Nero’s curiosity was showing as always, theory which was confirmed when the man guided the boy towards the machine that controlled the main hook to grab the net in order to explain how it worked.

While Nero walked from one side to the other of the deck, clearly having more fun than V, Finn learned fast that the invoker wasn’t the talkative type and extracted some kind of notebook on which he began to write something. At the end, V also sat down in another crate situated next to the one Finn was sitting on, observing the people working. After a while, he was considering the option of excusing himself to enjoy some time alone when realizing Finn was looking at whatever he had just written with a frustrated expression that arouse his curiosity.

“What are you doing?”

Finn was about to fall from the box when V’s voice broke the one-hour silence.

“O-Oh, nothing. Just a poem.”

V raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, which encouraged Finn to continue.

“But I’m having trouble in making some things rhyme”, the boy looked at V with sudden expectation, “can you take a look at it?”

Before V could reply anything, Finn was already offering him the paper, so he reluctantly took it to read it. First that girl in Hillside and now this kid: he honestly didn’t know what there was about him that attracted them when he made sure to show he didn’t want to be bothered.

“Don’t worry, you can tell me how terrible it is—”

“Yes, in its current state it is indeed rather deplorable.”

“...O-Okay, maybe you didn’t have to be _that_ sincere…”

“But the metaphors you use are not entirely horrible. This one of the second verse is half-decent.”

Finn promptly offered him the pen, observing him with intensity while V wrote annotations in the paper.

“I presume this is a love poem for someone”, the way Finn blushed was enough answer for him, “what is his name?”

Finn’s mouth fell wide opened, as if he couldn’t possibly understand how V had deduced the gender of his love interest, which made V show a small smirk while signaling with his eyes towards Nero.

“You weren’t too subtle while looking at him.”

The kid exhaled a nervous laugh, blushing even harder before answering.

“Tom.”

V thought for a moment before writing something again in the paper, returning the last to Finn after it. The boy read it rapidly, his mouth falling gradually more and more opened until there was actual risk of a fly entering it.

“Wow”, Finn looked at V with awe, “this sounds SO much better!”

While the boy kept muttering impressed sounds to himself while re-reading the improved verses, V was about to return the pen to him as well when he noticed it had the initials ‘F. J.’ written on it. Finn realized what he was looking at and an affectionate expression appeared in his face while recovering it.

“My sister gave this to me years ago for my birthday. She engraved it herself”, he exhaled an embarrassed laugh, “this is the thing I forgot the last time that we went to fish. And I know it’s stupid because it’s just a pen, you know, but having it with me is...comforting. It’s as if she was with me in some way, you know?”

Finn’s voice breaking a little at the end allowed V to deduce that the boy’s sister wasn’t with them anymore

“It is not stupid”, V replied, “mementos have a power that should never be underestimated. They are a source of strength, so the ones who laugh at them are simple fools.”

V was simply talking to himself, remembering that apparently inoffensive amulet whose vision provoked the first crack in the control Mundus had over the older son of Sparda, but his words made Finn show a relieved smile. He probably hadn’t understood everything V had said, but he had got the general meaning because he said a sincere ‘thank you’ that V answered with an awkward nod.

At that moment there was finally movement in the net that the crew had threw on the water, so Finn immediately focused on the lower deck again while explaining V the whole process even if this one hadn’t asked for such courtesy. Despite his initial indifference, V ended asking several questions that Finn enthusiastically responded, and when the ship inclined to the side for the great number of fishes the net had caught, it was the kid the one who prevented him from sliding towards the railing by grabbing his arm between laughs.

“Holy shit, there are so many!”

When hearing that familiar brusque voice, V’s attention shifted to Nero, who was helping the other members of the crew to raise the net from the water certain effort even with the help of the machinery. After the net was finally on the top deck, the crew, obviously happy for the catch, began to palm themselves in the back, including Nero as well since the devil hunter had voluntarily helped in the task even if he hadn’t been asked for it.

V had just noticed that everyone had ended rather drenched as a result when Nero, still laughing for one of the sailors’ comments, distractedly crossed his arms in front of his chest and removed the clothing, the material sliding with certain difficulty against the boy’s lean muscles due to its damp state. V didn’t realize he had been following the whole movement until Nero’s eyes fixed suddenly on him.

“Enjoying yourself?”

V’s heart stopped for a moment before realizing that Nero was innocently referring to him watching the whole fishing process, so he subtly gulped while forcing himself to avert his eyes from the slightly distracting sight of the water running down the boy’s exposed neck, pectorals and abs, which besides shined even more for the sun that was now illuminating the deck.

“It’s been...instructive”, V eventually said, causing Nero to exhale a short chuckle while wringing out his t-shirt.

“Well, now I know that if I ever get tired of hunting demons, fishing is just as funny.”

V rolled his eyes when hearing Nero’s comment, but he was suppressing a smile when the devil hunter excused himself to get changed, the image of the young devil hunter becoming a sailor coming as quite hilarious in his mind. At that moment he realized that, at least for a moment, he had completely forgotten about their previous discussion, and also noticed that Finn was even redder than before after seeing Nero’s unconscious show.

“Damn”, the boy exclaimed, obviously referring to the boy’s impressive physique, and innerly V couldn’t help to agree even if he would cut his tongue off before admitting aloud such a thing.

“Finn!”, the boy was about to fall from the box a second time when Mr. Jenkins called his name from the stairs, “enough slacking around. Help the guys in the hold.”

“A-Aye aye, sir!”, as if being caught red-handed, Finn rapidly jumped to the floor and disappeared to the lower level in a run, after saying a quick ‘Bye’ to V.

Mr. Jenkins looked at V in silence for some moments inquisitively, while he returned the gaze without averting it or blinking. Eventually, he seemed to be the winner of the silent staring contest because the captain broke the silence with a tone that still came out rather reluctant.

“In an hour we are having lunch. You can join us if you want.”

V obviously didn’t have the intention to do so, and after spending that time reading in order to keep his mind focused, at some point exhaustion provoked that the verses of his book of poems became blurry, making him realize he was dozing off.

Not wanting to lose the opportunity to get some real sleep, V went directly towards the berths room. He was in the process of removing his coat and vest to change into the grey, oversized t-shirt that the mother of that child had lent him to sleep (and that insisted in him to bring to the journey) when the door opened.

Since Finn was the last one in doing that, V was expecting to see the kid there, so his eyes opened slightly more when he saw Nero open the door with his back, while maneuvering to carry a plate stuffed with too variated food.

“Hey”, the boy said after closing the door, his t-shirt fortunately dried already after leaving it on the deck, “the captain said you weren’t coming, so I brought you something—”

Nero stopped talking, his eyes scanning V’s upper body with a complete lack of discretion. V innerly hoped to have been more subtle during the times he had accidentally looked at the boy, because it was certainly weird to be stared in such away, though not entirely unpleasant.

“Looking for something, Nero?”

His ironic words made the boy finally focus on his face, his tone coming out defensive when talking next.

“I had no clue you had your whole back tattooed”, Nero left the plate on V’s bed while sitting on the opposite one, snorting then in a light annoyed way that caught V’s attention.

“What is it?”, V inquired, finishing putting his t-shirt on and sitting on his bed carefully while taking the plate.

“Nothing. Just that that demon could have healed those scratches too.”

V, who had grabbed with care one of the irregular meatballs drenched in sauce to observe it with suspicion, raised an eyebrow when hearing Nero, who was already leaning against the pillow with his left arm behind his head.

“You sound bothered by it.”

Nero snorted louder, stumbling a little with his next words.

“I-I’m not! I just thought they look kind of...painful?”

V chuckled with amusement, taking a small bite to the meatball, which tasted better than he expected, although that wasn’t saying a lot.

“Well, they sting a little. But believe me: pain is the furthest thing in your mind when you are in the process of obtaining them,”

“Tsk, if you say so.”

An amused grin appeared on V’s lips when hearing Nero’s brusque reply. He found quite funny that the boy felt so self-conscious for not having any kind sexual experience, always answering gruffly whenever V mentioned something remotely related to the topic. He couldn’t blame him though. It was rather understandable that Nero felt frustrated if the only contact he had experienced with his girlfriend in several years hadn’t included more than pure infantile caresses. Also, his girlfriend hadn’t struck him as a person with whom you could spend an enjoyable time in bed, since she looked like the prude, nun-like type.

V stopped chewing briefly, realizing that the accumulated fatigue was clearly affecting his train of thoughts because otherwise there was no reason why he should be investing his time in thinking about Nero’s nonexistent sex life. It was absolutely none of his concern, the same than he shouldn’t waste time in thinking what exactly Nero had seen in a woman like Kyrie, whose only common point with the boy, as far as he had deduced by Nero’s passing comments, seemed to be that they had grown up together.

But well, overall the boy really looked comfortable with his romantic situation, and for the times in which V had seen him talking to her via phone, or the way he had claimed he would be taking his pendant back, it was evident that he held her dear. And _even_ if that wasn’t the case, that would be Nero’s problem, not his, so he should not care about it. No, more accurately: he _definitely_ did not care about the fact that Nero’s idea of happiness was to marry an objectively boring woman whose main value seemed to consist of being a devoted wife.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”, he inquired suddenly, mainly to push those thoughts away and startling Nero in the process.

“I did it already”, Nero settled his two arms behind his head, “but fishing was more tiring than I thought, so I was planning to take a nap.”

V nodded in silence, continuing eating in the same way for almost another 5 minutes until he decided he had enough.

“You’re not gonna finish that?”

V correctly interpreted that comment, and with a sigh he offered the plate to Nero, who sat up on the bed to finish it in time record, abandoning the room briefly to return it to the galley. When Nero came back V was already leaning on his mattress but without covering himself with the covers. Nero recovered his previous position on his own bed, silence fell between them and V was beginning to doze again when Nero’s voice snapped him out of it.

“Hey, V.”

V took a deep breath, trying not to sound annoyed because, even if he hadn’t asked for it and even if he would have probably preferred to be left alone, Nero had been attentive enough to bring him food and keep him company, so it would be a jerk move even for him not to let this interruption pass.

“Yes?”

He frowned when Nero remained silent instead of blurting the first thing that came to his mind, which caused him to turn his head to look at the boy, in time to see him gulp.

“You know, I’ve been thinking…”, V bit his tongue not to comment anything related to such an uncommon thing either, “…and are you sure you need to go to that island?”

V’s heart skipped a beat.

He had believed that he and Nero had reached a silent agreement of avoiding anything that could remind to their previous argument, so he wasn’t expecting Nero brought the topic of the island again. However, he managed to talk with a studied calmed tone while making sure that his expression didn’t betray anything this time.

“Well, obviously. That message the succubus deciphered was there for a purpose that requires to be investigated.”

“Yeah yeah, I know that, but maybe _I_ could be the one in checking the place. Without you having to step on the island, I mean.”

V’s eyes opened more for a moment, mixed feelings invading him. On the one hand, the fact that his unease for visiting the island had been completely exposed frustrated him to no end, but on the other, the fact that Nero was trying to prevent him from going through a bad experience in Mallet was unexpectedly considerate. He dared to say it entered the realms of sweet, even if it kept being an incredibly stupid suggestion, as he proceeded to point out next while closing his eyes and crossing his fingers over his stomach.

“Alright, and how exactly will you know if you find something useful? Because unless you have been zealously hiding your knowledge of Latin and demonic language, I’m pretty sure you would be unable to recognize clues even if they were in front of you. Also, considering we do not have any means to keep in touch, what would happen if you get lost inside? Finding you would be really complicated, almost impossible. And finally, we should bear in mind that if things kept being as it used to be in the past, there will be multiple enemies wandering around, and although your ability in battle is pretty decent, we have already experienced that ambushes can be dangerous so—”

“Okay, forget I said anything.”

He wasn’t particularly surprised that his comment made Nero sigh with exasperation before shifting position in bed to give his back to him. What did surprise him was the words that escaped his own mouth instead of simply ending the conversation to get some rest.

“But thank you for your concern.”

There was a new silence, longer than the previous one and charged with stupor coming from the two parts: from V because, in a Nero’s like way, the words had left his lips before fully thinking them, and from Nero because surely the boy hadn’t been expected that such a thing happened.

With his eyes still shut closed, V’s jaw tensed involuntarily when hearing Nero shift on the bed again. He waited for the boy to make a mocking comment similar to the previous day when he accused him of ‘apologizing’, but to his relief there was barely teasing in Nero’s next words, and in fact the boy’s smile could be felt in them.

“No problem.”

V didn’t dare to open his eyes until making sure Nero was deep asleep, the boy’s peaceful breathing betraying that fact. He took a moment to look at Nero’s frowning, sleeping face before closing his eyes again, exhaling a deep sigh while feeling glad that his exhausted state didn’t allow Griffon to appear. Because in that case, he wasn’t sure to be able to properly argue back against the mocking comments the bird would have surely made about what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those moment with shirtless Nero and V were super necessary for the plot, but after all that angst I needed something to lift the mood hehehe :P


	10. (May 25) - Weak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, the percentage of V's POV in this chapter is bigger than Nero's one. Blame the invoker for overthinking everything so much ^^U

**_May 25 - 2:07 a.m._ **

Nero was woken up abruptly in the middle of the night because of a thunder that made the whole ship tremble. He sat up in bed with his usual emphasis, being about to hit the upper one because he forgot he was sleeping in a bunk, but thankfully his reflexes allowed him to stop in time to avoid getting a bump in the middle of his forehead. 

Exhaling a curse he kicked the sheets aside and stood up on the floor, deciding to make a quick stop in the narrow bathroom situated in the corner of the same room. A couple of minutes later he was coming back to his bed, walking carefully not to trip over for the swinging of the ship, when he detected movement in the opposite bunk. 

His eyes had already got used to the darkness so he was able to distinguish V sleeping in a curled position with his back facing Nero’s bed, and he deduced that the invoker was suffering from agitated dreams by basing on the way his body lightly spasmed from time to time. 

He remained standing in the middle of the two beds, scratching the back of his head while considering the option of waking V up, since the dream the last was having didn’t look very pleasant. At the end he decided not to do anything and tucked back into bed, thinking that probably it wasn’t a good idea to wake up the invoker. After all, he doubted V had gotten much sleep the previous day because when he woke up from his nap V was already awake and reading, and even if the man refused to abandon the room or join the others later that night for dinner with the intention of resting, when Nero came back to the room V was still trying to get asleep, turning around in bed long after Nero turned the lights off. 

A couple of minutes passed and the storm outside seemed to affect the dreams V was having, since the invoker began to murmur incomprehensible things in his sleep. Nero still decided to refrain himself from doing anything, not wanting to risk another confrontation with V, but when after some seconds the invoker literally groaned in pain he decided that V could hate him all he wanted for interrupting his sleep, but he wasn’t going to stay still while the man seemed to be suffering.

“V.”

He tried to wake him up by calling his name first, but when it didn’t work he crouched next to the invoker’s bed and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. Nero gulped, noticing that V was covered in sweat, the white t-shirt sticking completely to his lean body. Damn, V’s nightmares had to be of the worst kind if his body was reacting like that.

“V”, he shook the invoker ‘softly’ at first, but then more brusquely when V groaned again, “V, wake up, you are just dreaming—”

At that moment a loud thunder rumbled, startling Nero, the noise combined with Nero’s shocked jump making V turn around brusquely while trying to put his hands around Nero’s neck in a clear attempt to strangle him. He was able to grab the invoker’s hands when V’s long fingers were already brushing his skin, his reflexes coming in handy once again but also the experience of having suffered those violent reactions when being suddenly woken up from nightmares, giving Kyrie more than one scare after they began sharing the same bed.

“Hey hey hey, V!”, with his eyes still closed, the invoker began to writhe to escape from his grip, “V, it’s me, Nero!”

When he practically shouted the last sentence V’s eyes finally opened while stopping struggling, his expression still looking slightly anguished but overall confused. 

“Where…what...”

“We are in Mr. Jenkins’ ship, remember?”, Nero explained while V fought to liberate himself from the last threads of sleep, “you were having a nightmare just now.”

V exhaled a long breath and Nero saw the invoker trying to suppress a gulp without success. After swallowing, V proceeded to talk with calm, though this time it sounded as if V was putting extra effort in sounding that way.

“My apologies for waking you up.”

Nero shook his head negatively.

“A damn thunder beat you to it”, he looked at V with hesitation, “you okay?”

“Yes”, V’s answer came up too fast, “so could you release me now?”

Until hearing that last comment Nero hadn’t realized he was still sustaining V’s hands in his, so he rapidly let them go but didn’t move from his spot, observing V remove some strands of black hair stuck on his forehead while lying on the bed again, facing up. At that moment V seemed to realize he was still there, and threw a questioning look at him.

“Do you need something?”

The question was so out of place that Nero couldn’t help to exhale an incredulous laugh. 

“I think that should be my line.”

V tensed, his tone coming up with a hint of defensiveness when talking next.

“I appreciate your concern, Nero, but I’ve already said I’m fine.”

Nero was about to retort he didn’t believe it, but he guessed that engaging themselves in another fight wouldn’t be good, especially because they needed to be in good condition for the next day and each minute that passed, it was a minute they were wasting to rest. However, he was reluctant to go back to sleep knowing that maybe V was going to suffer from those nightmares again, so he decided to play a subtle card.

“You know, during dinner I saw some chamomile bags in the galley, so I think I’ll prepare some for me to sleep again”, he made sure to adopt a super casual tone while briefly leaning his hands on his knees to stay in a straightening position again, “do you want too?”

Nero made sure to hold V’s inquisitive gaze, and for a moment he thought V had seen through his intention and that it was going to reject the offer. However, after some seconds of awkward silence, V talked again.

“Well, I guess it won’t hurt.”

Nero nodded, satisfied with the invoker’s imperturbable answer.

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

Fortunately the tea bags were still in the cupboard where he last saw them, so in 5 minutes Nero was coming back to the room while maneuvering along the way not to spill the content of the two rather full cups he had prepared. When he entered the berths room, V was abandoning the bathroom. The invoker had turned the lights on, which allowed Nero to see that V had washed his face because the extremes of his hair were wetter than before. Also, despite the feeble illumination of the room, the light t-shirt V was wearing combined to its light damp state made that his tattoos were partly visible through it.

It wasn’t the first time that Nero wondered how exactly V had got them. Was he born with them? Had he obtained them later? And how exactly he had met his familiars? There were so many mysteries involving the invoker that he would finish sooner by saying what he knew about him. 

“I see there was enough for two.”

When the invoker talked, Nero guessed that it wasn’t the moment to make those questions, although with V it seemed it was never the moment. 

Pushing away his curiosity once again he offered the cup on which he had put a total of three bags instead of a single one, since that was the quantity Kyrie used with him when he used to suffer from insomnia. His heart skipped a beat when seeing V excessively interested on the other cup, and for a moment he feared that the invoker decided to choose the opposite one for the sake of keeping being his usual difficult self. Fortunately, at the end V accepted the correct cup, their fingers brushing slightly in the process.

“Thank you.”

For the way the man spelled those words it looked to him as if V somehow knew that he preparing himself tea had been an excuse so that the invoker accepted to take some, but Nero hadn’t the least proof to confirm his suspicions, so he simply nodded as an answer and sat on his bed with his legs crossed over the mattress, while V sat as well but with his naked feet leaning on the metallic floor. 

They sipped their respective drinks while lightning flashed through the porthole situated in the furthest wall of the room. The silence that surrounded them wasn’t uncomfortable per se but Nero wasn’t used to it when being with someone else, which caused him to throw occasional glances at V that weren’t as discreet as he thought, since eventually V exhaled a sigh while looking at him.

“What is it, Nero?”

Nero frowned with confusion.

“What?”

V lowered his cup to his knees, his eyes still fixed on Nero with patience.

“It’s rather evident you want to ask something.”

Nero’s mouth half-opened for having been so easily read, a huff escaping from it.

“Yeah, I do. But it’s also evident you won’t want to answer.”

His comment made V show the hint of a tired but amused smirk.

“I can make an exception, as a token of gratitude for this not entirely horrible tea.”

Nero initially thought the man was mocking him, but then he realized that the look in the invoker’s eyes was serious and that his offer was therefore sincere. He gulped softly, finding himself a little nervous all of sudden. After all, what were the chances of V willingly wanting to say something about himself? Maybe this was his only opportunity to learn something about the invoker, so he had to think his question carefully. 

Maybe he could finally discover what V’s real name was? But probably that wasn’t too relevant. And what if he asked about the tattoos or the familiars? Yeah, that could be a good one. Although he wouldn’t lie, the question that had been rounding his mind during the whole day and that he couldn’t shake off his head was: what the fuck had happened with the invoker in Mallet? Because he may not be the cleverest man, but he would have to be completely dumb not to have understood the hidden meaning in V’s words when the invoker lost his nerve with him the other morning. However, if his suspicions were right and if somehow V had suffered something similar to slavery in that place...shit, how the hell was he supposed to ask about _that_? Damn, he may not shine for his delicacy, but even he knew that there were some topics that had to be treated with care, and clearly this was one of them.

“Nero, I’m not trying to put pressure on you, but if you could formulate your question tonight it would be appreciated.”

V’s ironic comment made Nero aware that he had been thinking for more time than he thought. The realization caused him to huff again while passing his left hand through his short hair.

“It would be easier if I had a single thing to ask.”

V looked at him with confusion.

“So you have more than one?”

Nero barked a laugh.

“And more than two and three”, V blinked, still without understanding, and Nero looked at him with a deadpan expression, “come on, man, the only tattoo you are missing is having ‘Mystery’ written in your forehead.”

Nero would swear the cough V let out was meant to hide a chuckle, but the invoker disguised it so well he couldn’t be sure.

“I admit I like to protect my privacy”, Nero was about to let out an ironic ‘ _No shit, really?_ ’ when V continued, “but I find curious that you show so much interest.”

V’s gaze turned more inquisitive, which made Nero shift on the bed because the invoker had a point. Up till then, he had never been the kind of person in prying into other people’s lives. Yeah, he was curious like everyone else, but for example he had known Dante for a while now and there were a lot of things he didn’t know about the Devil Hunter, and he had never felt the need of wanting to know more. 

With V it was different, and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe the simplest reason was that it had been a while since he partnered up with someone to complete a mission, probably since his years as a Knight (since he doubted Dante’s involvement in Fortuna could count as a real collaboration), so it was rather understandable that he wanted to know more about the man with whom he worked. 

“Maybe it’s you the one who shows too little”, he answered at the end, causing V to raise an eyebrow while adopting a light warning tone.

“Well, as many questions as you seem to have, I hope you can come up with _one_ in the following minute because I am almost finished with my tea, and I would like to try to get some rest for tomorrow.”

Nero began to think furiously, realizing that V wasn’t joking as usual. When the minute was about to pass, Nero had theoretically made his mind in order to ask about Mallet but, at the last second, he found himself asking a completely different question.

“Will you really be okay tomorrow?”

V blinked slowly, looking at Nero in disbelief.

“That’s all?”

Nero couldn’t help to exhale a laugh when V almost snapped those words.

“Yeah.”

V blinked again.

“So you have the chance of clearing up some of your doubts and you decide to waste it asking that?”

Nero raised his still flexed legs to enclose his arms around them, offering V a confident smile.

“Yep. Because I’m sure I’ll have more chances to ask about the other things”, his tone became more serious while shrugging, “but now I prefer to know that you’re not lying and that you’ll really be fine.”

It was probably the first time Nero saw V be at a loss of words. The invoker stared at him in a way that Nero was unable to interpret before averting his eyes to the side, while gripping the cup so tightly that Nero feared that the recipient broke. After some seconds, Nero had resigned to V refusing to answer the question when the invoker exhaled a long sigh and talked.

“I don’t know”, it was Nero’s turn to look slightly shocked when hearing the ‘ _I’m-sure-about-everything_ ’ V spelling that in an hesitant tone, “it is been a while since I last stepped on that island, and taking into consideration my previous...business with it, I cannot predict how my condition will be once we are there. However…”, V’s tone became determined, “...I can guarantee that I won’t allow that my personal issues interfere in our mission. I plan to see this investigation through the end, and find whatever is hiding there.”

Nero gulped, a tense silence falling between them, just interrupted by the background sound of the storm. He hadn’t expected that V agreed to share some of his doubts, and for the way V suddenly cleared his throat awkwardly it seemed Nero wasn’t the only one surprised.

“And now, we should probably stop wasting time and sleep.”

The invoker suddenly stood up, approached his bed and practically took his empty cup from his hands while avoiding looking at him, abandoning the room to return the mugs to the galley. Considering that familiar tinge of arrogance that had adorned the invoker’s last comment, Nero guessed that V in part regretted having opened himself a little, but he couldn’t help to feel glad that the man had decided to share how he felt instead of sealing himself in as usual. He wondered if such a thing would happen twice, although after seeing V’s reaction he doubted it was soon.

While V was absent Nero removed his mechanical arm to sleep more comfortably, deciding that probably Finn had been exaggerating during the dinner when saying that sea monsters prowled at night and that it was better to sleep with one eye open. He had left the prosthetic arm over the top bunk and had lied on the lower one again when V entered the room. The invoker was about to turn off the lights when his eyes stopped in Nero’s severed limb, making this one tense involuntarily.

“Have you got used to it already?”

Nero’s eyes opened more with surprise when V’s eyes briefly stopped on his mechanical arm before looking at him. He hadn’t known until now that V had noticed that the first times he used Overture the arm put some pressure of him, so maybe V paid more attention to details than he gave him credit for.

“Yeah. Now I barely notice the real one is missing when I have it.”

V nodded, turned off the lights and entered his bed, muttering a soft ‘ _Good night_ ’ that Nero returned. That night, Nero made sure to stay awake until hearing V’s steady breathing, moment in which he closed his eyes to join the invoker in what he hoped would be a more or less peaceful sleep. 

* * *

“...and just in case, take this”, while Mr. Jenkins talked to Nero, V was paying the driver of the motorboat that would take them from Pitchbale port to Mallet when the captain offered the boy a flare gun, “I honestly don’t think that you find something in that abandoned rock, but better safe than sorry.”

V suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes, not very surprised that a man like Mr. Jenkins defined a island with a castle of the 12th century in such a contemptuous manner. Truth was that he wasn’t very fond of the island either for obvious reasons, but one thing was that Mundus had decided years ago to use the castle for his purposes and another that the place didn’t have a historical value that deserved to be appreciated.

However, he decided not to make any comment related to the matter, since the captain had procured them a new faster means of transport for a decent price and hadn’t hesitated in returning Nero his precious pendant after they finally paid in cash what they owed him.

“Thanks. Hope not having to use it”, Nero said with a smile, shaking the man’s hand firmly. Mr. Jenkins then turned towards V in a more tense manner than with Nero, as if the man wasn’t very sure how to treat him. Eventually the captain simply nodded briefly and V returned the gesture, observing the man walk to his crew waiting for him in a truck ready to deliver the goods they had got. The only one who hadn’t entered the car yet was Finn, who was waiting for his grumpy grandfather and who waved his hand effusively towards V. After making sure that Finn’s gestures were directed to him, V also nodded towards the kid, causing the last to smile before rapidly entering the truck after Mr. Jenkin rushed him to do so.

“So…”, V looked at Nero when this one addressed him, “...you ready?”

The boy’s tone had sounded as always, but his blue eyes were fixed on him with interest, as if he was trying to scan how he really felt. V’s heart skipped a beat, recalling Nero’s behavior the previous night. The boy had looked really concerned for him, and he was still gathering his thoughts about how to feel about that. 

Part of him would like that Nero minded his own business, since sometimes the boy’s good nature made him too aware he wasn’t as strong as he should, but another part considered strangely comforting there was someone worrying about his well being. He wasn’t just used to be in the receiving end of such an attention, and consequently he didn’t know which feeling was predominating: if annoyance or relief.

“Yes”, he answered, hoping his serene answer didn’t betray the contradictory emotions he held inside at that moment, “let’s finish with this.”

V had to admit that Mr. Jenkins had been right in suggesting to changing boats to go to Mallet, because even if the motorboat was going pretty fast it would still take them an hour and half to go there, so going in the fishing ship would have taken even longer. 

He chose the seat next to the driver while Nero picked the front of the bow to have a better view. The first part of the trip went rather smoothly, but when the silhouette of the island could be seen clearly in the horizon, that oppressive feeling V had managed to keep at bay up till then installed once again in his chest.

He placed his elbow on his side of the boat while leaning his temple on his knuckles, trying to block the memories that were endlessly trying to resurface, since he was pretty sure than once they were in the castle, doing that was going to be impossible. However, not even the loud music being reproduced in the boat managed to keep him distracted, and the more he tried, the worst the light migraine that had been accompanying him that morning become. He was grateful that the tea of the previous night allowed him to sleep more than 3 hours in a row, or otherwise he didn’t want to imagine how he would be feeling now.

V was almost grateful when the motorboat finally stopped in the far west end of the island, since hopefully by being more active he would be able to ignore more easily the hammering of his head. However, when they hit land two unusual things caught his attention: first, that the island looked smaller than he remembered; and second, that even if they were in the lower part of it and therefore the castle could not been from that side, the top of the highest tower should be seen already, but it wasn’t.

“Something wrong?”, Nero inquired while putting his backpack on, frowning when seeing V’s scrutinizing eyes.

“I don’t know yet.”

V invoked Shadow in his shadow trail form to ride on it, being followed close by Nero. The driver had agreed to come pick them up in the afternoon because it would be too dangerous to navigate those waters during the evening, which meant that they had to investigate fast if they didn’t want to come back to the island the next day as well, thing that V wanted to avoid at any cost. 

It took them almost an hour to reach the top of the rocky formation, from which the rest of the island could be seen almost in its totality, and when they did, V stared in stupor at the gigantic hole covering the place where the castle was supposed to be. 

“Uhm, we have to investigate that?”, Nero ventured, signaling towards the hole covered in sea water at the bottom with an imprecise gesture.

“I don’t understand”, V muttered to himself, “the castle should be exactly here.”

Nero looked at the invoker and then at the hole, making a small, lateral movement with his head.

“Then the castle is really small or it’s invisible.”

At any other moment V would have glared at Nero for making such a comment, but he was busy trying to understand what was happening. It had no sense. It was evident that they were in Mallet, and a castle could not simply disappear on its own…

...unless someone else was the culprit for it, and considering _who_ Vergil was forced to face, and also taking into consideration _that person_ ’s destructive nature, it wasn’t difficult to deduce what had happened.

V pinched the bridge of his nose with exasperation. Definitely, Dante had the innate talent of interfering with his plans even when it wasn’t on purpose. 

“Well, it seems that Mr. Jenkins wasn’t exaggerating when saying Mallet is an abandoned rock now.”

Nero looked at V with confusion.

“Does that mean that we have come here for nothing?”

Before V could answer, Griffon appeared next between them, squawking loudly.

“Holy crap, what happened here?!”, Griffon looked at V, “kid, don’t tell me you lost your nerve and did this!”

V exhaled an impatient sigh while Shadow, now in his feline form, shook his head as if he was calling Griffon dumb.

“Of course it wasn’t me”, V said with irritation, looking at Nero again while thinking that he wouldn’t mind having that kind of power, “and no, it is still too soon to stop.”

“But the castle we were going to check is gone, right?”

“Yes, but only the castle of _this_ dimension”, V was already foreseen the dumbfounded expression Nero was going to make, so he continued, “it’s a little long to explain, but the short version is that because of the position and characteristics of this island, the demonic power here has always been stronger than it should, which in the past facilitated the process of opening portals leading to other dimensions, such as the Underworld.”

After a brief pause, Nero talked slower than usual, as if he was still understanding V’s previous explanation.

“So you are saying that to go to the castle, we have to open a portal to the Underworld?”

“Not to the Underworld but to the Mirror World, which is an intermediate dimension between this world and the other one. However, that won’t be enough. We need to open a portal to the exact time in which the castle still existed, and in order to do so it is mandatory to find certain object: a piece of one of the two mirrors that were present in the castle, and which in the past allowed to travel to that dimension directly. If my theory is correct, that mirror would have kept the imprint of the the place he belonged to exactly before being destroyed, allowing us to enter the castle.”

Nero nodded slowly.

“And what if you are wrong?”

V looked at Nero imperturbably. 

“In that case we will enter an unknown dimension and the possibilities of us coming alive from it will be drastically reduced.” 

V’s too honest words made Nero snort with resignation.

“Let’s hope you are right then”, the boy’s tone turned skeptical, “but if in this dimension the entire castle has been blown up, what are the chances of a mirror having survived?”

“A complete mirror you mean? None. But what we will be looking for is a fragment of that mirror.”

“Fuck, and that won’t be like looking for a needle in a haystack?”

“Indeed, but since the fragments withhold demonic power, I’m rather sure that Shadow’s abilities will be useful to find it.”

“Oh, have you heard about that, buddy? Time to play metal detector!”

To the panther’s annoyance, this time Griffon was prepared for the spike the familiar threw at him and avoided it. 

“Okay then”, Nero said with a determined tone, hitting the palm of his left hand with the opposite fist, “let’s do some mirror searching.”

When the previous day V promised himself that he would review every nook and cranny of the island, he wasn’t expecting to do it so literally, but since they didn’t know the exact point in which a piece of mirror could be, there wasn’t any other solution that scanning the whole zone. The best scenario would be that Shadow carried out the exploration while they waited for him, but unfortunately in their current level V’s powers didn’t allow to send the familiar that far away, so they were forced to climb down the steep slope so that the range of sending him was enough.

A couple of times they were about to lose footing, but the advantage of having Griffon was that the bird could teleport to their position to prevent that from happening, thing that the bird had to do more than once while protesting about their clumsiness. As they reached the bottom, the chances of the mirror shards being lost forever in the ocean due to the castle explosion augmented, but finally after almost three hours and half of searching, Shadow reappeared next to them transporting a minuscule glass shard, not bigger than V’s pinky nail. 

“Please, tell me that’s what we need”, Nero almost begged while V felt relieved and anxious at the same time.

“It is.”

Nero exhaled a loud sigh.

“Thank goodness”, Nero exhaled, patting the panther’s head, “good job, cat.”

“Tsk, so ungrateful”, Griffon was saying, “I have been the one in saving your ass twice, you know?”

“Yeah, but if your buddy hadn’t found the crystal we would still trying to find it, so he has more merit.”

“More merit?! Then the next time you are about to fall I’ll let him catch you with his spikes!”

“Whatever, chicken.”

The quarrel between Griffon and Nero lasted until they were safely on the top of the pit once again, moment in which V left his cane on his feet to extract his poetry book, searching the most suitable verses that would allow to proceed. He began reciting them while sustaining the small piece of mirror between his right index and thumb in front of him, finally causing those two to stop their childish argument to pay attention to what he was doing.

“ _'O Earth, O Earth, return./Arise from out the dewy grass./Night is worn, And the morn/Rises from the slumbrous mass._ ”

After spelling the last verse, V felt the small fragment vibrating between his fingers, so he softly released it. The mirror shard remained suspended in the air instead, vibrating for some seconds until it began to slowly enlarge until creating an ovoid portal through which a purple, void scenario could be seen. 

V gulped, knowing here was no turning back now.

“You sure we’re entering the correct place?”, Nero asked with an unsure tone, since there was nothing that revealed where the portal exactly led.

V returned the book inside his coat and recovered his cane.

“There’s just one way to know”, he announced, resolved to go first partly to convince Nero that the portal was ‘safe’ but also to force himself to continue, “I’ll see you at the other side.”

He raised his left hand so that Griffon could grab his wrist and with a small jump he let the familiar guide him inside. 

* * *

The place where he landed was a room, concretely the Castellan’s chamber, inside which one of the mirrors had been before the castle’s destruction. The room was an exact replica of the one that appeared in V’s [ memories ](https://youtu.be/yVR3NOGxYHQ?t=47), which made V gulp softly. That was the place where Vergil came across Dante for the first time after almost a decade since they parted ways, although at that moment the older son of Sparda was possessed and wasn’t aware of such a fact, resulting in Vergil almost killing his brother in the outside garden if the vision of last one’s amulet hadn’t prevented that from happening.

A gasp escaped V’s lips at that moment when the pulsating ache he had been feeling in the side of his head due to the migraine brutally intensified, as a result of the torrent of emotions that came to him, belonging to the moment in which Vergil was about to break free from Mundus’ control: confusion, when finding himself fighting against his little brother, who looked older than he remembered; anger, for the realization of having been controlled and stripped off his will in order to serve the same demon he swore to take revenge of; and, the most powerful of all, self-loath, for not being capable of breaking from Mundus control at that same moment, allowing the demon to teleport him back to the Underworld once again in order to firm up his control over him to keep using him as he pleased.  

The unexpected peak of pain made V grab his head with one hand while falling onto one knee, managing to keep the balance of the other thanks to the cane. 

“Oh jeez”, Griffon muttered, flapping his wings next to V while the last tried to focus his vision, around which a dark aura had formed, “jeez, this is going to be harder than we thought.”

V was trying to find a sarcastic reply when Nero crossed the portal. The invoker felt his heart skip a beat and rapidly tried to stand up before the boy could see his lame state, but it didn’t take Nero much to finish looking around so the boy caught him in the middle of straightening his position.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Unlike the previous night when Nero’s interest for him had felt relieving, in this occasion the concern appearing in the boy’s voice caused the opposite effect. 

It was ridiculous. 

It hadn’t even passed a minute since he had stepped on the castle and he was already struggling to keep himself together. At least Nero let him recover his feet on his own, or otherwise it would have been way too pathetic.

“Nothing”, his strained voice just added a new blow to V’s pride, “we should check the library. If there are any leads, that is the first place we should visit.”

Nero simply observed him inquisitively with a frown.

“Okay, but maybe you should rest before continu—”

“No”, his tone came more cutting than he intended when interrupting Nero, so he took a deep breath trying to sound more like his usual self, “the portal I opened should be active for at least 24 hours, but when other dimensions are involved you can never be completely certain of their stability. So, we cannot afford ourselves to waste unnecessary time.”

Detecting that Nero planned to protest against his decision, V walked out of the room while suppressing the need of leaning on his cane. The boy didn’t say anything while following him down the long stairs, although V could physically felt Nero’s tension while they climbed down in silence. 

They eventually reached a door with a lion’s head engraved in stone on it. There was a garden at the other side, and V sighed with resignation when pinpointing four nobodies scattered around the central circular fountain.

“Gross”, Nero said with a disgusted tone next to V, staring at the barely humanoid demons crawling on their four limbs and waiting for them to go down but without making any attempt of climbing up the stairs, only emitting sounds similar to weird barks.

“Close range attacks are not recommendable with these demons. I’ll take care of it.”

V was about to raise his hand to invoke Nightmare when Nero surprised him by grabbing his wrist.

“No, you stay here. _I’ll_ take care of it.”

V half-closed his eyes when Nero released his hand and began to charge his sword.

“I have just warned you about avoiding a direct confrontation.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard, I’m not deaf”, Nero answered in the same sarcastic tone, “but you aren’t  good to invoke that golem right now”, V’s eyes opened wide when Nero suddenly turned towards Griffon and Shadow, “guys, cover for me.”

V felt a wave of deep irritation when his familiars followed Nero when this one jumped towards the ground in order to pierce one of the nobodies with Red Queen, the three of them beginning to fight against the demons as if he had nothing to do with it at all. At any other moment V would have probably felt slightly impressed by Nero’s innate ability of handling those demons rather well with the combination of his sword, gun and arm, but at that moment he only felt useless, which only served to increase his frustration until it bordered anger.

The battle finished after some minutes, and when seeing Nero exhaling a proud ‘ _Whoo hoo_ ’ from below while engaging himself into another verbal fight with Griffon, V began to climb down the stairs with his teeth gritted so tight that he almost forgot the migraine piercing his head.

“Not bad, birdie. It seems you aren’t useless after all.”

“Hah, the only useless around is you, kid! I could have fried those things with my eyes closed—”

The bird’s boast was cut when V loudly snapped his fingers when passing next to them, making both Griffon and Shadow return to their inked form in his skin. The action made Nero stare at him in disbelief, before beginning to follow him with a frown.

“Hey, you could have been nicer just now with them, you know?”

When Nero had the nerve to sound lightly reproachful, V felt his blood boil. He stopped in his tracks and turned around with enough emphasis to make Nero be about to trip backwards in order not to bump against him.

“Let’s make something clear”, he said, hissing each word and causing Nero’s eyes to snap opened as if he was startled by his reaction, “the fact that up till now my familiars have agreed to help you does not give you the right to use them. They obey my command, not yours, so _never_ make the mistake of ordering them around again.”

Nero stared at him in shock, and when he tried to turn around again, the boy grabbed his arm, stopping him from keeping advancing.

“What the hell, V”, for now, Nero’s tone came more confused than angry, “can’t you see that we just fought so that you didn’t have to?”

If Nero’s words intended to make things better, it just caused the opposite effect.

"I do not remember having asked for such a courtesy.”

Nero tensed his jaw as his confusion was washed away by anger.

“That’s just because you can’t fucking admit when you need help.”

V exhaled a sarcastic chuckle.

“Well, that is rich coming from someone who almost killed himself for wanting to fight Urizen alone, don’t you think?”

Shaking himself from Nero's grip, V tried to reach the opposite door of the garden but he didn’t get that far, since suddenly he was forcefully deprived from his cane, turned around and slammed against the nearest wall by Nero, who held his own cane pressed horizontally against his chest in a similar position as the one V used when stopping the boy from trying to help Dante, back in Urizen’s den.

V stared at Nero in stupor, hissing the next words when realizing that trying to break free on his own would be an impossible task, considering Nero had the upper hand in physical strength.

“Move aside, Nero.”

“Not a chance”, Nero pressed him more against the wall while approaching his face more to his, causing V to fight the inexplicable urge of diverting his eyes from Nero’s eyes to other irrelevant part of his face, “you’re gonna stop and listen because, at this rate, _you_ are going to be the one in getting both of us killed.”

V froze when hearing Nero say those words he had told the boy some time ago. 

When seeing him go silent, Nero exhaled a short sigh and continued talking, sounding more exasperated than angry.

“Look, I’m not dumb. I know that whatever kind of ‘business’ you had in this island in the past wasn’t good, and that you don’t want to talk about it. But damn, V, whatever happened here is making you act like the reckless one.”

V gritted his teeth, not liking one bit that their roles had been reversed.

“I’m _not_ reckless”, V raised his voice a little without even realizing, while frustration slipping in his voice without him being able to do anything to prevent it, “my condition right now is not as good as it should, I will give you that, but I will not tolerate to be treated as an hindrance since I am perfectly able to fight even if I am…”

By when V shut up, it was already too late to redirect the sentence, since Nero’s clear eyes were scanning his own with anticipation, clearly wanting V to finish the sentence.

“...even if you are what ?”

V gulped, averting his eyes to the side while multiple possible answers about what he really was whirled in his head:

An unwanted, discarded part of someone who decided he wasn’t necessary anymore. 

A mere half whose only possibility of surviving was to reunite with his other to be finally complete.

A vessel that held memories in a mind that wasn’t able to handle them with dignity.

A shadow of what he once was before losing everything for not being strong enough to protect it.

V could have chosen any of those answers, all of them even, but he eventually fixed his harsh eyes on Nero again while replying in the simplest, most ambiguous manner, still managing to summarize all of them in the main characteristic that now defined his being.

 

“Weak.”

 

Nero’s eyes opened wide, as if he hadn’t been expecting such an answer spelled with so much contempt. 

None of them spoke at first, the silence surrounding them getting thicker with each second that passed until Nero put an end to it with a brusque, definite tone that took V by surprise.

“You aren’t weak”, Nero frowned, as if he was bothered about what he was going to say next, “because I’m not, and you defeated me that day, remember?”

V shook his head.

“That doesn’t count. You were still recovering from your wounds at that moment, and in case of the battle having been prolonged, maybe the outcome would have been different.”

“Okay, but even if it was out of luck and you were as weak as you say, what’s wrong with that?”

V couldn’t prevent his jaw from hanging a little slack, which made Nero look at him as if he was dumb for looking so confused. 

“That’s why you hired Dante to defeat Urizen, right? And the reason you came to me when the old man was defeated. I mean, it’s evident your strong point is the brain while ours is the muscle. And since you will never see me trying to decipher one of those weird poems, it shouldn’t be your call to exhaust yourself in battles when that’s my thing. So, from now on…”, Nero pushed away the cane to stop caging V against the wall, “...do me a favor and when you feel like crap for whatever reason, stop playing tough in the battlefield. Because in the fighting department…”, Nero’s tone turned cockily confident, “...I’m the one in the spotlight.”

After practically throwing the cane into V’s hands, Nero was about to begin walking towards the fountain when he stopped, as if he had remembered something at the last moment.

“Oh, and what you said of me ordering your familiars around…”, Nero snorted, “...that’s bullshit. If they fought with me is because they care about you, you dumbass, and they knew you were putting yourself in danger. Hell, that bird doesn’t even follow your orders most part of the time, so you’re really dumb if you think he was following mine.”

V stared in silence at Nero finally approaching the fountain to drink from it before wetting his hair with one hand, still assimilating all what the boy had said. As if detecting his still lightly shocked state, both Griffon and Shadow appeared next to him.

“Dammit, V, I could have won the argument with that brat if you hadn’t invoked me back, you know—?”, Griffon shut up, his tone hesitant as V’s eyes were still fixed on Nero, “uhm, hello? Earth calling V, hello?”

Until Shadow didn’t approach him to softly rub his head against his thigh, the invoker didn’t notice his familiars’ presence. He absentmindedly patted Shadow’s head, causing the panther to purr slightly while Nero’s words finally sank into him, since at the moment he hadn’t been able to fully process them. 

Up till that moment, it had never occurred to V that his familiars could decide on their own volition to help him without having to order them around. Yes, he was aware that both Griffon and Shadow had manifested more than once when detecting certain changes of mood on him, but he had never grasped the concept that, even if his familiars had surely been given to him as tools so that he could still fight and defend himself, they actually cared about him, as Nero had said. 

And regarding the boy’s opinion about weakness, V couldn’t bring himself to embrace it. After all, for Vergil the mere concept of being weak was something to avoid at any cost, and would _never_ be something acceptable, so V was sure it wouldn’t be the last time he would resent his current state. 

However, hearing Nero say that he could be like that because he would supply that lack of strength, and that the boy really considered him stronger than V himself did, made the burden of having such a fragile body lighter. It was kind of liberating to know that, even if he would always prefer not to show debility, there was someone who wouldn't mind to see it, and who wouldn’t judge him for it.

“Okay then”, V woke up brusquely from his thoughts when Nero approached him again while drying his hands on the front of his sweater, signaling with his thumb the door at the other side, “let’s check that library so we can leave this fossile castle behind.”

“ _Fossile castle_!”, Griffon squawked while Shadow covered his eyes with his paw, “can you believe this uncultured boy, V?!”

The outraged voice of the bird made V finally recover his capacity of speaking while Nero shrugged his shoulders with a defensive ‘ _What?_ ’.

“You know the saying, Griffon”, V began to say with a purposely resigned tone, “‘ _do not cast your pearls before swine._ ’

When Nero’s reaction was to glare at him half-heartedly, not understanding the sentence but knowing it was saying something bad about him, V simply smirked ironically while leading the way towards the library, this time without holding back his need of using his cane to better advance because, at least with Nero, he didn’t feel like he had to do it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter has probably ended a little abruptly because it was getting too long and decided to stop here, but there will be more Mallet angst (and fluff, because aparently I can't write just the first xD). 
> 
> I positively think this is the longest slow burn I've ever written ^^U Buuut V is slowly learning he can allow himself to lower his guard with Nero! ~~poor thing when his feelings keep growing and he has to face Nero being with someone else...~~
> 
> By the way, I have never mentioned it before because I thought it was pretty evident, but all the poetry that appears in the fic belongs to William Blake's poems, including the title of the fic :P 
> 
> See you in the next update ^^


	11. (May 26) - And what if he dies?

**_May 26 - ????_ **

_“Nero! Run!”_

_“Wait, are you sure about this?”_

_“Love...? For a sibling? How foolish...”_

_“He is not going to make it otherwise.”_

_“This was a bad move!”_

_“But what if it kills him?!”_

_“Nero, go! You are just—”_

_“DO IT!”  
_

* * *

**_Some hours ago_ **

Nero coughed when the book V had asked him to take raised some dust that entered his nose and mouth, after he extracted it with effort from one of the second floor shelves. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, huffing while approaching the ladder because the damn book was even heavier than it looked.

“Damn, are you sure we will find something here?”, he shouted towards the first floor of the library, looking over the broken railing to see the invoker sitting at the only table of the room, surrounded by old documents and books whose pages looked about disintegrate at any moment due to their antiquity.

“For fifth time, Nero: no, I am not”, V said as if he was in autopilot, without interrupting his reading, “but if you are bored feel free to join Shadow outside. I’m hearing him growl so I guess those demons are back.”

Nero didn’t have to be told twice. He climbed down the ladder the best he could not to accidentally release the book and left it on one of the corners of the table with a heavy thump, shaking the rest of the documents situated on it and causing V to throw him a light reproachful look. He muttered a hurried ‘ _Sorry_ ’ and exited the room charging his sword, ready to kick some demons’ asses.

As V had said, Shadow was already engaged in a fight, throwing powerful attacks with his claws at the possessed puppets that were mechanically moving at the end of the corridor.

“Hey cat, leave some fun for the rest!”, Nero exclaimed, approaching the group of enemies to join the panther in the fight.

Sadly, the fun didn’t last much and in 15 minutes Nero had sliced the last of those annoyingly dancing demons. Now he regretted having killed so many of those things in their way to the library. If he had known that they were going to spend so much time locked in that rusty room he would have rationed the enemies better, but well, at least the small recess would prevent him from dying out of boredom. Maybe at that rate he should consider learning Latin for real, since it was resulting to be something indispensable for their current mission, although considering how horrible he was at studying it during his years in Fortuna, maybe it was a lost cause for him.

After the last enemy was down, they came back to the library and Shadow remained outside the door, resuming his guardian role. Nero patted his head softly and stepped inside while rolling his right shoulder to make sure Overture was well adjusted after the battle, ready to keep with the thrilling book searching.

He realized he wasn’t the only one who needed a rest when seeing V leaning both of his elbows on the table and rubbing his temples with his eyes closed.

“Tired already?”

V opened his eyes again to throw an ironic glance at him while he approached the table.

“Of course not. I’m simply resting my eyes.”

Nero left his sword next to one of the shelves and stopped close to V, who had closed his eyes again.

“How is your migraine?”

“Still there”, V answered while Nero situated behind him, “but now it has become a dull pain so it is rather bearable—”

Nero was about to jump when V suddenly turned around with a glare, catching him when he was about to settle his hands on the invoker’s shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

The way V was staring at Nero’s hands with suspicion made the devil hunter exhale an incredulous laugh.

“Jeez, man, relax, I’m not the enemy, you know?”

“That does not answer my question.”

“Look, do you trust me?”

V blinked.

“Do I have to answer?”

Nero threw a deadpan expression at V that made the invoker sigh while recovering his initial position facing in front of him. Nero then placed his hands on V’s shoulders, feeling the man tense even more under him.

“Maybe this would be a good moment to mention I do not particularly like to be touch—”

V’s reluctant comment ended in a breathy gasp that made Nero immediately stop rolling his thumbs around V’s shoulder blades, in alert.

“Wow, sorry, is it bad?”

From where he was, he couldn’t see the invoker’s face but he could picture his lightly confused expression by basing on his tone.

“Surprisingly...just the contrary.”

Nero rolled his eyes while resuming his shoulder massage, a little rougher than he initially intended as a punishment for the man’s lack of faith. However, when the action caused V to let out an involuntary, soft groan, Nero found himself gulping, not having expected to ever hear such a sound coming from the invoker’s mouth. That was the only loud one that accidentally escaped V’s lips, since the next ones that V let out as Nero kept loosening the tight muscles sounded more muffled, as if the invoker was biting his lower lip not to be noisy, although Nero couldn’t verify that last thing. And it wasn’t as if he wanted to.

“So you can do more than destroying things with your hands.”

Nero took an internal note about V actually complimenting something about him for the first time before talking.

“Yep. Although Kyrie always tells me I’m too rough.”

V’s muscles tensed for a brief moment under his hands before coming back to their more relaxed state.

“Well, perhaps you should consider finding a fiancée that appreciates your limited talents.”

Nero snorted, returning the joke.

“Oh, yeah, that’s a super valid reason to break up.”

“I can guarantee you there are worse.”

Nero frowned lightly.

“Talking from experience?”

“Maybe.”

Nero didn’t insist, deciding that he didn’t want to know more. He kept working on V’s shoulders for almost another minute being careful not to apply too much pressure with his mechanical arm, finishing by patting the invoker’s shoulders softly.

“Done. Feeling better?”

He circled the table and sat in front of the invoker while V looked at him still a little surprised.

“Yes. Thank you.”

V had to really feel that way since he didn’t even complain when Nero leaned his feet on the table while crossing his legs. They spent the following minutes in silence, V reading the enormous book Nero had brought him while he balanced on his chair back and forth, looking some documents V had already examined, on which strange symbols and magic circles had been written.

“Seems like some people entertained themselves by invoking shit.”

“Well, it is not weird considering the unfortunate events taking place in the castle for so many centuries”, V explained absentmindedly, passing another page carefully, “at some point the people may have thought that asking help to superior forces was their only salvation.”

Nero snorted, passing to cross his arms.

“Doing that is _never_ a good idea. I’ve lost count of how many demons I’ve killed because an idiot thought it would be funny to play with the occult.”

V remained silent for a moment before talking.

“I agree. Although sometimes recurring to them is unavoidable.”

The invoker’s too casual tone made Nero suspect that the man was, again, talking from experience, but he decided not to press the matter for the moment. After all, his coupon of making V sneak his head out his shell was covered for the day, the image of the invoker looking like a turtle making him be about to show a small smile. Jokes apart though, he was glad that V had stopped trying to hide when he wasn’t feeling good. The fact that he had admitted the headache was still bothering him proved it, so now there was just to hoping it wasn’t just a punctual thing.

Also, against all odds, he also hoped that that bigmouth chicken was okay. After Griffon and Shadow came back from investigating the surroundings of the castle, hours ago already, the bird hadn’t manifested, and obviously Nero hadn’t bought the bird’s excuse about the Mirror Dimension having a weird effect in his feathers to justify his absence. He had asked V about Griffon’s behavior, but the invoker only commented that his familiar went through a bad experience in the [Coliseum](https://youtu.be/sVVjcIba8QI?t=250) in the past and that its proximity may have caused a negative effect on him. The brief explanation arouse more doubts for Nero, related to how exactly V and his familiars had come to meet, but it had been evident that V didn’t plan to further explain anything about Griffon, and he didn’t feel entirely comfortably by asking more details behind the bird’s back, so the conversation had ended there.

Nero yawned while leaving the document on the table. He couldn’t know how much time they had been in the castle, but he estimated that in an hour at most they should cross the portal back if they didn’t want to miss the motorboat. Also, he hoped that they could eat during the trip because they hadn’t had time to do so yet and he was already starving.

He was about to remind V about that (the motorboat thing, not the eating since he could predict what V would answer to that) when seeing the frown that had appeared in the invoker’s face while leaning forward to read, staying now in an almost hunched position.

“You found something”, he said more than asked, causing V to nod still with his attention focused on the book.

“More or less. Remember when I commented that demonic power was especially strong in Mallet?”, Nero nodded and V tapped softly at the page he was currently observing, raising his eyes from the book to look at him, “it seems that this island is not the only bastion with that kind of energy. There are mentions here of other strange events happening in other places as well.”

Nero nodded again, returning the chair to its initial position to lean his crossed arms on the table.

“Then I guess we will be checking those places.”

To his surprise V shook his head with a light frustrated expression.

“There are too many. It would take days, maybe weeks, to analyze which of them are of interest, and we cannot waste that much time. So, if we do not find more specific information, I am afraid that this book will not be of much use.”

Nero half-closed his eyes at V.

“You always say that”, V looked at him without understanding, “that we don’t have time, I mean. You make it sound as if we were going against the clock or something.”

 _Oh fuck_ , Nero couldn’t help to think when V’s expression became imperturbable as his body tensed again, a clear indication that (again) he had hit a sensitive matter. Definitely, or he had a hidden talent to bring up topics of delicate nature for V, or the invoker had too many fucking secrets he didn’t want to share. Nero bet for the second.

“Well, we _are_ going against the clock. I remind you that Urizen becomes stronger with each passing day, so as sooner as we learn from where he is obtaining his power and how to face it, the sooner we will be able to come back to Red Grave to confront him.”

Nero didn’t avert his eyes from V because even if the invoker’s argument was pretty solid, he had the feeling that V wasn’t telling him everything. Not that it was something new, he thought with resignation.

“Okay, so we need to filter the places with demonic interest. I think I know how we can do that.”

V arched an eyebrow, which prompted Nero to continue before the invoker could verbally show his skepticism.

“Years ago, the man in charge of Fortuna was a religious leader”, Nero felt his blood pumping with the mention of Sanctus, the years that had passed since their final confrontation not having done anything to reduce his hate for him, “he was obsessed to achieve power no matter the cost, and when we finally defeated him, the exploration of the castle in Fortuna showed he had carried out several investigations. All the documents associated to them were concentrated in two places”, Nero enumerated with his thumb and index fingers of his human hand while talking, “his secret laboratory and his private chambers in the Cathedral, and among them there was a list of places that could be ‘of interest’ in case of his plan of invoking the Savior in Fortuna failed.”

An expression of understanding appeared in V’s expression.

“So you believe that the past Castellans may have done the same thing.”

Nero shrugged crossing his arms over the table again.

“Well, it’s evident the people of this place were a little obsessed with the occult, so maybe they did a similar investigation too, which would be great so that we don’t have to bring that monster of a book with us.”

V showed the hint of a smile when hearing Nero’s choice of words and nodded slowly, standing up from his chair.

“Yes, it certainly deserves some checking.”

The library and the Cathedral were practically adjacent, and since Nero and Shadow had taken care of the puppets wandering around before, they reached the holy building rather quickly. The place was in better shape than the library, and so it was the private chambers situated in one of the rooms behind the altar. Fortunately, that place was way smaller and easier to explore, so it only took them a little more than half-an-hour to find a book inside a hidden compartment of the desk.

“Something useful?”, Nero inquired with anticipation while looking over the invoker’s shoulder as this one rapidly browsed through it. V didn’t answer immediately, remaining in silence until finally stopping in a particular page showing some kind of summarized list of places and dates, when a mere third of the book remained.

“It seems that way”, V turned his face to the side to look at him with an impressed look, “good job.”

Nero snorted.

“Okay, now you just have to practice so that you don’t sound like praising a dog.”

V smirked a little.

“Considering your manners in the table I do not see such a big difference.”

Nero rolled his eyes while softly bumping his shoulder against V’s one as a protest, making this one lose a little of balance for not having expected the action.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’m tired of this blurry place.”

After safely storing the book on the backpack, they proceeded to abandon the room. Nero had barely opened the door leading back to the Cathedral when, through the narrow opening between the door and the frame, multiple spiders with size similar to tarantulas began to slip inside to crawl around their feet, causing Nero to jump startled.

“Damn, this place really needs some thorough cleaning”, he said while extracting his pistol, Blue Rose’s powerful bullets allowing him to kill the disgusting creatures with three rapid shots.

“This is not good”, Nero frowned when hearing the barely concealed urgency in V’s voice, “we have to leave this place before he appears.”

Nero never had the chance of asking V who _he_ was, since the moment they went back to the Cathedral some kind of projectile was thrown towards his direction without him being able to avoid it. The moment the unidentified object impacted against his chest it began to rapidly coil around his body until Nero was immobilized by a sticky material, that he soon realized it was spider web.

“What the fuck—”

The next two projectiles aimed at his face and legs, the first covering his mouth and neck while the second made him lose balance and fall heavily on the stone floor, the rough impact causing a cut on his chin that began to bleed.

Everything happened so fast that he didn’t know V had suffered the same luck until the invoker also fell next to him, immobilized as well but lying on one of his sides. He noticed then that most part of V’s tattoos had vanished, just leaving the ones that belonged to Nightmare, but again, Nero hadn’t the chance to try to ask V if he was fine, or where the familiars had gone, or what the hell was going on.

His last unformulated question was answered almost immediately when several spiders, now with the size of big dogs, began to lower down from the ceiling towards the ground thanks to web strings suspending them. Nero had time to count five of them before a new spider, way more gigantic than the other ones, landed on the middle of the Cathedral, making the whole place shake dangerously.

“W E L L  D O N E”, the enormous creature said in a cavernous voice while two of medium spiders began to slowly approach them, “I T  S E E M S  W E  W I L L  H A V E  A  P R O P E R  D I N N E R  T O N I G H T.”

Despite deep inside he knew it was futile, Nero didn’t stop struggling to get free. He managed to lie on his side and kicked his legs towards the spider that went after him, managing to hit it once before the creature maneuvered him on his back by using its most front legs to crawl over him. He didn’t stop insulting the creature even if the web gag made his words completely unintelligible, and when the spider began to approach its horrid face while moving its fangs, Nero’s heart began to beat faster because he doubted he could survive a bite of that monster addressed to his face. However, the creature simply exhaled its stinky breath over him, making him feel incredibly dizzy all of sudden.

The last thing Nero registered before losing consciousness was the gigantic monster’s hollow voice, sounding rather satisfied and rejoicing for having the chance of getting its revenge against the Sparda blood.

* * *

_When V opened his eyes again he was on a bed, naked under the covers, inside a room without windows or doors that was completely empty with the exception of a small mirror hanging on the wall._

_He blinked, slowly, trying to situate himself, and sat up upright. He was going to rub his eyes but stopped mid action, staring at his own hand, whose fingers weren’t as long and neither as fragile as he remembered them to be._

_He looked down, finding a body way more built that lacked any inked patterns returning his movements._

_V gulped, beginning to suspect what was happening._

_He stood up from the bed and approached the small mirror hanging on the room to look at himself in it._

_He was welcomed by a grey, penetrating stare, belonging to a face that wasn’t his but that was extremely familiar. A face that was now showing a sincere, shocked expression that, V was sure, Vergil had never displayed in life._

_At that moment the room glitched._

_V...No. Not him: Vergil, now dressed with the clothes he used to wear when invoking Temen-ni-gru, turned around, following the source of the children laughs that were not resounding loud, too loud, behind him._

_The rest of the place had changed as well to show the room he had shared with Dante when they were kids._

_In fact, there they were: a 5 years old Dante jumping on his bed while laughing, as if he didn’t have a worry in the world, while his also 5 years old self did the same with a more concentrated look, competing to see who could jump faster. Higher. Better._

_They were always competing._

_At that moment the door of the room opened, and Vergil froze in place when a blonde, beautiful woman dressing a simple dress and a red shawl around her shoulders passed through it._

_Vergil’s chest felt suddenly so tight it hurt, while staring at his mother approach their younger selves with a resigned, amused smile._

_His mother turned to Dante first, pretending to be angry by putting her hands on her hips before ruffling the boy’s hair, turning, finally, towards his younger self._

_Dante was always the first._

_Vergil gulped, jealousy invading him, and approached his mother in two brusque steps, dragging her away from the younger Dante._

_His mother didn’t resist, looking at him with confusion._

_Not wanting to see what other expression the woman could make, such as disappointment or pity, Vergil hugged her tightly against his chest, closing his eyes shut._

_He knew it wasn’t real, because it couldn’t be._

_But for him, when his mother returned carefully the hug while softly whispering his name with fondness, it was._

_She may have chosen Dante over him at the end, but his mother’s warmth felt as comforting as he remembered before everything broke apart._

_Until suddenly, it was too warmth._

_Too hot._

**_It burned._ **

_When Vergil opened his eyes again, his mother’s body was in flames in his arms, together with the rest of the room, which was also covered in a dark smoke that entered his lungs and made it difficult to breath._

_His basic instinct told him to push the woman aside to avoid being hurt. There was no salvation for her after all._

_But he didn’t release her._

_His clothes began to burn as well, sticking to his flesh and fusing into it. He felt his skin pulsating, breaking, the pain so real that he was forced to grit his teeth not to shout._

_Still, he didn’t release her, not even when the flames fully consumed him._

_Once, he was too weak to protect her._

_But now, real or not, if he could not save her, at least he would be strong enough not to let her suffer alone._

When V’s eyes opened for second time while exhaling a loud gasp, it took him a moment to realize he was back in the Cathedral, tied to a massive spider web that had been weaved in corridor by using the lateral pillars as main support. His torso was still immobilized but his mouth and legs had been released, probably because the demons had thought it would take him a while to wake up.

He exhaled a deep sigh, feeling his cheeks slightly damp due to the induced nightmare, product of the poison the arachnes had injected him in order to keep him under control. He gritted his teeth. It had been a big miscalculation on his part not remembering that Phantom would be around in Mallet, he thought as the bitterness left by the dream was replaced by anger at himself. At least he had had enough time to sending his familiars away before they were captured, because depending on how strong the poison had been, he would have been unable to do so.

That last thought made him begin to search for Nero. It just took him to turn his head to his left to find him, hanging from the web a couple of meters away from him. For the way the boy was writhing it seemed that he was also suffering from nightmares which looked more violent than his own.

When feeling movement outside V closed his eyes again, pretending to keep sleeping while thinking about how to escape from their current situation. The best strategy was to take care of Phantom first, since fortunately the arachnes didn’t share the bigger demon’s exoskeleton neither its ability to spit lava and they wouldn’t be that problematic to defeat once the gigantic arachnid was down.

However, after seeing Nero’s state, V doubted he could wake him up in time, not to mention that at the moment the only thing in their favor was the surprise factor, which would vanish if the arachnids caught him in the process of warning Nero. So, for now, their best chance for surviving was to keep a low profile and wait for the suitable moment to catch those demons off guard, and trust that Griffon and Shadow were quick enough to act when he gave them the order.

The light trembling on the room indicated V that Phantom was approaching, together with the rest of the arachnes. V forced himself to keep still while the web bounced slightly, and not to tense when feeling the demons’ legs brushing his body while working on his sticky chains.

“T H E  Y O U N G E S T  I S  S T I L L  M O V I N G  T O O  M U C H”, Phantom commented, “L E T ‘ S  W A I T  A  L I T T L E  M O R E.”

The arachnes made some unintelligible growls while continuing disentangling him, and V had to force himself to keep his body as boneless as possible when he fell towards the floor when the web surrounding his body was removed, making sure that his arms reduced the impact against the floor.

“I  K N O W .  T H I S  O N E  I S  T O O  S K I N N Y . B U T  H I S  D E M O N I C  P O W E R  I S  D E C E N T ,  S O  I T  W O N ' T  T A S T E  T O O  B A D .”

V gritted his teeth, suppressing the urge of calling his familiars too soon to make that pathetic being eat its words.

Invoking Nightmare could be a good option, since the golem attacks would easily break through the demon’s armor. However, the arachnid was faster than its heavy body made it look, so a bad miscalculation, such a Nightmare landing close but not exactly on its objective, could be the difference between dying there or live enough to continue their journey, so he couldn’t rush. He had to wait, as frustrating as it was.

V was able not to tense when feeling Phantom’s frontal, lethal clamps raise him unceremoniously from the floor, as if he was a lifeless, ragged doll. He made sure to swift just a little so that his right arm was liberated from the arachnid’s clamp, to have certain free mobility. He kept still when the demon approached him to his mouth slowly, since he would need to be close enough so that his plan had a chance of working.

And when, finally, the proximity of Phantom’s open mouth provoked a heating sensation in his face, product of the lava bubbling up from the demon’s stomach, V rapidly opened his eyes while raising his right arm, startling the arachnid and causing it to growl.

“W H A T ? !  H O W  C A N  Y O U - - ”

 

“On me.”

 

Those two words were all V needed to say so that Griffon and Shadow appeared the next instant next to him with impeccable coordination. The moment the panther’s four legs landed on the floor, the familiar began to brutally slice the arachnes by using his spinning and hedgehog form. At the same time, Griffon rapidly let the cane fall exactly on V’s hand, moment in which the invoker grabbed it with force to dig its end in Phantom’s opened mouth with all the force he could gather, causing the extreme of the cane to pierce through the space between Phantom frontal eyes.

The surprise attack made the arachnid release him with his right claw, liberating that way V’s left arm, that he proceeded to lean on the demon’s head to have better leverage to keep digging the cane on the arachnid’s weak point.

“D A M N  Y O U ! !”, Phantom roared in fury and pain, tightening his grip on V’s body and causing this one to suppress a grimace when the action surely broke a couple of ribs, “W H Y ? ! W H Y  A R E N ' T  Y O U  A F F E C T E D  B Y  T H E  P O I S O N ? !”

V exhaled a breathless, humorless laugh before throwing the demon a condescending look.

“Because no matter how many bad dreams your pathetic lackeys create, they will never compare with the ones the nights already bring to me. So…”, V began to slowly twist his cane on the gigantic spider’s head while spelling the next words with a cruel hiss, “...enjoy the taste of despair.”

Making use of the last ounces of strength, V pushed forward his cane until the handle was practically pressing against the roof of Phantom’s mouth. The demon let out the loudest roar so far while finally releasing V, this one managing to keep the cane with him as the arachnid took his hurried leave, cursing them and the Sparda blood between agonizing howls.

Griffon, who had joined Shadow by fighting against the remaining arachnes, caught V in time before this one impacted against the floor for second time.

“Damnit, V: why did it cost you so much to wake up?! Shadow and I didn’t know what to do!!”

V stood up to his feet again with the familiar and his cane’s help, talking after recovering his breath.

“My apologies. Being captured didn’t enter in our plans”, V signaled towards Nero with his eyes and Shadow, who had finished the last arachne off, used his spikes to break Nero free, making the boy fall forward. Griffon caught the boy in time, huffing with a protesting ‘Heavy’ before leaving him lying on the floor, facing up.

Shadow removed the remainings of the web from the boy’s front carefully using his spikes again. The boy wasn’t struggling as much as before but now his body was suffering small, occasional spasms, which made V hurry to his side and kneel next to him while releasing his cane. He carefully opened one of Nero’s eyes, seeing that the pupil was so dilated that the clear blue was barely visible. He then settled both of his hand on the bottom of Nero’s shirt and sweater to begin raising it, exposing the boy's stomach and chest.

“Come on, V, do you think this is the moment for thi—oh, _crap_.”

V gulped when seeing translucid, green ramifications under Nero’s sweated skin that spread from his upper body until accumulating around his heart.

“What is happening?!”

V didn’t answer, feeling his heartbeat pounding in his ears, the exhaustion and pain invading his body remaining in the background after seeing Nero’s state.

Technically, the arachnes poison wasn’t mortal per se, since its effect consisted of incredibly real and vivid bad dreams as the one V had experienced. However, since the poison nurtured from the deepest fears of its victims, depending on how strongly people reacted to the hallucinations produced it could become potentially lethal. Besides, by basing on the Nero’s violent reactions, it seemed that the arachnes had given the boy a higher dose of poison, fearing the devil hunter’s natural strength and not wanting to risk that he fought back.

Which meant that, if they didn’t do something about it soon, at that rate Nero was going to die.

* * *

_Nero shouted while lunging against Sanctus when this one emerged from the crystal situated in the Savior’s forehead, ready to cut His Holiness open with his sword because this time, THIS time, he wasn’t letting him win. He wasn’t letting ANYONE die._

_At the last second, he changed the trajectory of the attack to impulse himself towards the top of the statue head, knowing that Sanctus would teleport there instead while summoning Kyrie in the crystal. That was a trick that he had failed for once, but now that he had been given a second chance, he wasn’t letting it happen again._

_He knew it was wrong, but he deeply enjoyed the surprised, horrified face of Sanctus when his sword pierced through the sacred leader’s chest, making the man cough blood._

_Nero let out a relieved chuckle, knowing that this time he had made it._

_However, the next time he blinked, his whole self was frozen, staring open wide in panic at Credo’s inert body been only held by his sword._

_“No…”, Nero muttered, “no no no. Credo.”_

_When spelling the General’s name, the man suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed the front of Nero’s jacket, using him to slowly incorporate and making the sword dig more in his stomach in the process._

_Nero tried with all his might to prevent hurting the man even more, muttering desperate curses as the blade kept cutting through flesh, making a squelching sound that ringed in his ears._

_He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t move while Credo stood up in front of him, looking at him with inert, dead eyes that made his blood run cold._

_The General opened his mouth slowly, as if he was a mechanic doll programmed to do that, but before the General spelled a word the scenario changed around him._

_Now he was trapped once again in the Savior’s fist, looking at Credo step in front of Sanctus without the chance of doing anything besides being a simple observer._

_“Not again”, Nero whispered, desperately trying to get himself free from his stony prison, since he perfectly knew what was coming._

_He had the scene memorized after all._

_The scene that had been plaguing his dreams for so many nights._

_But now he was stronger. He HAD to be._

_Now he was able to protect others._

_Now he could set himself free before..._

_“Nero! Run!”_

_This time, when Sanctus attacked Credo delivering the wound he knew it would be mortal, Nero’s shout of the General’s name made the whole space tremble._

_It was useless._

_He couldn’t save Credo._

_He couldn’t then, and he couldn’t now..._

“Wait, are you sure about this?”

 

_Nero frowned when hearing that distorted, slightly high-pitched voice coming from an unidentified point above the sky, which made him miss the conversation Credo and Sanctus were having, managing to only catch Sanctus last words before Credo was unceremoniously thrown towards the ground._

_“Love...? For a sibling? How foolish...”_

_At that moment, the fist sustaining Nero suddenly broke in pieces, causing him fall to the void as well._

_He felt his stomach tightening as he fell at a vertiginous speed, eventually traversing the ground as if he was a ghost to keep falling._

_And falling._

_And falling..._

“He is not going to make it otherwise.”

_He frowned again during the fall, a voice different to the previous one invading momentarily the place, and although he didn’t recognize it, it caused the perspective to change, making him be suddenly thrown against a vertical rocky wall before eventually falling to the ground._

_His eyes opened wide when standing up and realizing he was back in Urizen’s den, with Dante fighting against the Demon King while telling him to back off._

_“This was a bad move!”_

_But Nero didn’t pay attention to the devil hunter’s warnings._

_He was busy staring at the ground, because this time Trish and Lady weren’t the only ones unconscious. Dead._

_Kyrie was also present. And Nico. And V._

“But what if it kills him?!”

_This time Nero barely heard the outer squawking voice._

_He could just pay attention to the people scattered in the ground, all of them immobile, their bodies twisted in impossible angles as their eyes, looking as dead as Credo’s had looked before, were fixed on him. Accusing. Blaming._

_As if telling him he had done this._

_That nothing had changed._

_That he couldn’t protect anything, as Dante himself was going to say next._

_“Nero, go! You are just—”_

“ **DO IT!** ”

 

_And then, pain overcame everything else._

* * *

V let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding when the lightning bolt Griffon threw at Nero made this one arch his body while gasping, before beginning to cough uncontrollably.

“Holy damn, it worked!”, Griffon exhaled while V gestured Shadow to bring the backpack that had been left behind the altar, in the place where Nero and him had fallen.

“What the...”, Nero muttered between coughs, the uncharacteristic fragility in the boy’s voice concerning V a little, “...what happened?”

“We were attacked. I’m sorry for the brusque wake up but you were not responding.”

V rapidly extracted the bag with supplies and checked the remaining ingredients inside. Due to their visit to the forest, some of the herbs needed to prepare an antidote were missing, but V estimated that there was enough to prepare some for one person.

“Shadow, don’t let him fall asleep”, V ordered when seeing Nero’s eyes fluttering, threatening to close, which made the panther rub his head rhythmically against Nero’s to prevent this one from falling unconscious again, “Griffon, I need you to go to the Castellan’s room to bring a piece of the mirror there.”

“What? But it’s too far away!”, Griffon replied while V continued mixing the herbs in an empty food container, filling the last with the small bottle of water that they had also brought, “shouldn’t it be better that you go there with me to—”

“No, I will only delay you”, V interrupted, dissolving the herbs in the water and making this one gradually adopt a greenish color, “besides, the probabilities of running into enemies will be smaller if you are on your own, so make use of my strength if necessary and go.”

With Shadow’s help, V made Nero sit up more or less straight. Shadow lied down behind Nero so that the boy’s back was leaning against the panther’s body, allowing V to grab the back of Nero’s head with his left hand and the container with the other in order to slowly make the barely awake devil hunter drink.

“You are going to use the whole antidote on him?”

“I do not need it.”

“Of course you do! The nightmares you’ll have later are going to be even worse if you don’t—”

“I’m aware of that”, V stopped momentarily when Nero coughed but fortunately didn’t spill anything, waiting a couple of seconds before continuing making him drink, “but I won’t die because of it. Nero, on the contrary, will if he does not take it.”

V was too busy making sure Nero was properly swallowing the content without choking this time to detect the excessive casualness in the bird’s tone.

“And?”

V stopped, looking up at Griffon without understanding.

“What?”

“And what if he dies?”, the bird repeated, “I mean, you are the priority, V. If _you_ die, then we fail for sure. But the boy dying doesn’t affect us that much. You don’t have to put yourself in danger for him. We can always look for another one. Like we did when Dante screwed it up.”

V stared at Griffon, ready to argue against what the bird was saying just to discover he didn’t know how. Because that kind of reasoning was incredibly similar to his own way of thinking when the journey started. In fact, at first he had simply valued Nero for his relevance to the mission, thinking that in case the boy wasn’t useful, he could simply be discarded. Replaced. So, by looking at it with a cooler head, it was certainly stupid to put more pressure in his already fragile body by saving Nero: as Griffon had said, if he died there Urizen would automatically win, so right now he was risking the life of thousandth of people, risking his only path to redemption, to keep a single child alive.

There was no logical justification for such an act, and probably at any other moment, with hesitation or not, he would have sacrificed whatever it was necessary to guarantee the success of his plans.

But he couldn’t do it.

The idea of leaving Nero behind, lost in that dimension just to guarantee _he_ would survive...it was unacceptable.

“No”, V said with a definite tone, focusing on Nero again and feeling relieved when checking the green ramifications had subsided a little thanks to the antidote, “I want him alive.”

The moment the last sentence left his mouth V immediately regretted his choice of words, desiring having used others.

Because he could have said that he owed it to Nero after the boy prevented him from exhausting himself stupidly, thing that would have been critical considering their current situation; or that he didn’t want to consider people as simple tools to be used and discarded anymore, since that was what characterized Urizen and what he wanted to avoid.

But no: he had said that he _wanted_ the boy alive, even if he was sure that there were other ways to phrase it. _Several_ other ways.

“I see.”

When hearing Griffon’s amused tone, V gritted his teeth, suspecting that his familiar’s previous comment had been intentional, and that had taken advantage of his weakened state to make him say such an incoherent confession, but before he had time to think how to punish the bird for it, a thunder rumbled outside, startling him and his familiars.

The way their surroundings began to become even blurrier indicated V that the Mirror Dimension was becoming unstable, which meant the portal he created could stop working any time soon.

“Griffon, I need that crystal. _Now_.”

With a high-pitched ‘ _Roger_!’, Griffon abandoned the room while V rearranged the Nero’s clothes before leaning him against the ground as well, the boy now deep asleep but with his breathing steady, which could be a hint that the antidote was working although it was too soon to guarantee anything.

V perfectly noticed the moment in which Griffon needed to make use of his energy to push further the limited range of his invocation, since he felt a general discomfort spreading in his body with each meter that the bird advanced. At some point he was forced to cover his mouth with a hand while separating from Nero when feeling the urge to retch, the fact that their surroundings were now vibrating provoking a ringing sound in his ears not helping in the least.

When feeling his debilitated state, Shadow growled with worry. V felt the panther being about to come back to his tattoos when he stopped him.

“Not yet”, he said before having to cover his mouth again, “if the worst come to the worst, maybe you will have to carry one of us out of here.”

Shadow nodded, situating between both Nero and him as if he was trying to offer support with his proximity. V lied against the feline’s body while making his best not to succumb to the urge of closing his eyes, since the probabilities of joining Nero in his sleep would be too tempting to ignore.

After some minutes that felt eternal, Griffon finally appeared next to them, carrying a small piece of mirror in his claws.

“Oh damn, you look like a corpse.”

V ignored the bird’s unique way of showing concern, thinking by passing that it was as subtle as Nero’s, while incorporating with a grimace, using Shadow and his cane as support. With each muscle of his body feeling now extremely heavy, V extracted his poetry book as everything around them began to tremble more powerfully, indicating the imminence of that Dimension collapsing.

“ _Turn away no more:/Why wilt thou turn away/._ ”

Each word made the burning pain of his chest provoked by the broken ribs even worse, but he forced himself to ignore it while keeping reciting, trying to spell each word with as much clarity as possible.

“ _The starry floor/The watry shore/Is giv'n thee till the break of day/._ ”

The crystal Griffon was still grabbing in his claws began to vibrate after he finished the poem, so the bird released it as this one enlarged to create a dimension similar to the first that had brought them there. When seeing Griffon planned to take him inside, V shook his head, signaling at Nero with a movement of his chin. Without stopping mumbling, Griffon grabbed one of Nero’s wrists and also without stopping protesting for the boy’s weight he disappeared through the portal with him. V and Shadow followed soon after, seconds before the portal at the other side vanished while leaving a purple void behind.

When they were back in the real world it was incredibly dark, which made V aware that they had spent way more time than he predicted inside the Mirror World. The sky was rumbling, heavy rain pouring down and leaving them completely soaked, and V couldn’t help to exhale a resigned, weak laugh while finally letting himself fall onto his knees next to Nero, thinking that it would be too much to ask that the weather was kind to them after what they had gone through.

At any other moment he would have invoked Nightmare so that the golem protected them from the rain, but he didn’t even have the strength to clap his fingers to do so, so it was Shadow the one who automatically accepted such a task. The panther lied down next to V and Nero while creating an arch over them with his tentacles, so that the rain didn’t fall directly over them.

V rummaged inside the bag Shadow had carried in his mouth when they crossed the portal to get the flare gun that Mr. Jenkins gave to Nero. He pointed at the sky and shot it, observing the feeble red light. He doubted that the people in Pitchbale port could see it with the storm, but at that moment a familiar more vibrant red bolt illuminated the sky.

“I’ll take care of it”, V heard Griffon say for a point over them with a determined tone, “so you focus on surviving, you hear me, kid?”

V would have liked to reply ironically that Griffon using those attacks would make that task more difficult, but he hadn't the strength to form words, so he simply nodded before finally collapsing on the ground facing up, next to Nero who was lying on his side.

At that point he was barely able to stay awake, but he managed to swift his body with effort to face Nero.

He placed his index and forefinger against the side of the boy’s neck, and just when detecting Nero’s still weak but steady pulse, he finally allowed exhaustion to take over, drowning him into unconsciousness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Non-Spoiler alert: they both survive xDDD  
> Aaand V is _finally_ beginning to realize Nero is important to him (MVP goes to Griffon in this chapter for making it happen xDD).  
> Also, after so many emotions in Mallet the next chapters will be lighter, and the light angst that will come next will finally begin to be of a different nature hehehehe. See you in the next <3


	12. (May 27) - Calm after the storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For once Nero's POV in this chapter surpasses V's, yeeey xD
> 
> Sorry in advance for all the inaccuracies when talking about medical treatments or recoveries because my knowledge of the topic is rather limited 🙏

**_May 27 -  2:15 p.m._ **

Nero woke up with a rhythmic beeping sound coming from an unidentified point in his left. He opened his eyes slowly, a frown automatically forming in his face when realizing he was lying on an hospital bed. With his head feeling a little heavy Nero blinked twice, trying to get used to the light entering through the window.

He was still examining his surroundings in a half-sleepy daze, having pinpointed already Overture lying on the chair next to his bed, when a woman with caramel skin who couldn’t be much older than him entered. She was wearing vibrant, loose clothes under her white gown with several bracelets adorning her arms, and Nero immediately detected what he called ‘Nico’s vibes’ in her, because of the energy she managed to transmit even when she had her whole concentration focused on the folder she was carrying.

The woman was in the process of closing the door when she looked at Nero, while showing a big bright smile that was difficult not to return.

“Oh, so you are finally awake”, she approached the bed, stopping next to Nero to offer her left hand that Nero shook while still lying, “Dra. Zaira Dorens. I’m the one in charge of you. How are you feeling?”

“Groggy”, Nero answered after some seconds, causing the woman to chuckle. 

“Well, you’ve been sleeping quite a lot, so that is rather normal”, her eyes turned more serious, “but besides that? Do you remember who you are and how you ended in Pitchbale hospital?”

When hearing her comment, memories belonging to his visit to Mallet began to pop up one after another, some more vivid than others.

He remembered investigating the library, and finding that book in the Cathedral. Then those damn spiders had attacked them, and he fell unconscious after one of them breathed something weird on him. He also recalled him facing Sanctus again and appearing in Urizen’s den once again before pain cursed through him. And then someone making him drink something, cold fingers pressing against  the side of his neck where his pulse was, and a familiar voice sounding unexpectedly worried coming from really far away.

Nero’s eyes snapped opened, his heart accelerating in panic while trying to rapidly sit up straight on the bed.

“Hey!”, Dr. Dorens placed a hand against his chest to stop his attempt of moving, “you have to take it easy, okay? For now your analysis have turned out well but you have to keep still until the result of the final tests are out.”

With the woman’s hand still against his chest he managed to half incorporate until leaning his left forearm on the bed, ignoring the good news about his condition for the sake of asking what it really mattered to him at the moment.

“V. The man who was with me. Where is he? Is he okay?”

When hearing the urgency in his voice Dr. Dorens nodded rapidly, reassuringly.

“Yes, Nero, your friend is okay.”

Realizing he still wasn’t convinced, the woman separated from the bed. Nero followed the doctor’s movements when she approached the neighbour bed in order to remove the privacy screen, and just when he saw V lying meters away from him, deep asleep, breathing peacefully and with a drip connected to his left exposed arm, he let out a long, alleviated sigh.

“See? He is an even bigger sleepyhead than you.”

Nero exhaled a laugh that came out a little broken. He lied on the bed again, leaning the back of his hand against his eyes while biting his lower lip when feeling it beginning to tremble. Fuck, he didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him, but the wave of relief he felt was really intense and it didn’t help his defenses were down.

“There’s nothing wrong with crying, you know?”, the woman said with an amicable, comprehensive voice while approaching his bed again, and of course hearing her say that aloud made Nero stop fighting against the lump of his throat, tears now streaming down his cheeks freely as his teeth kept being gritted, “when being exposed to near death experiences our body has to let the accumulated stress out, so don’t hold yourself back.”

Nero let out a deep breath and gulped, his hand still covering his eyes. Even if the doctor’s words had sense, he knew his reaction had been pretty disproportionate, because it wasn’t the first time he felt death close and he had _never_ reacted that strongly. But well, at least he was glad that V was deep asleep or otherwise the invoker would have surely mocked him for being a crybaby.

After calming down, Nero rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and sat up, this time more carefully. Dr. Dorens hadn’t moved from his side, waiting patiently for him while pretending to read his papers.

“Better?”, she diligently offered him a tissue that she had extracted from the pocket of her gown, causing him to chuckle with embarrassment while accepting it.

“Yes. Thank you”, he said, blowing his nose.

“You’re welcome. Oh, and regarding your clothes, you were both soaked to the bones when Ronald brought you two here, so we had to remove them but don’t worry: all your belongings are now clean and safely stored.”

Until Dr. Dorens didn’t point it out, Nero hadn’t realized that indeed V and him were dressing in hospital clothes.

“Ronald? Who is Ronald?”, he repeated. 

His comment made the woman sigh in exasperation, which almost caused him to apologize but he realized in time it was directed at herself.

“God, I’m doing this terribly. Thank goodness Dr. Richmon is not around or he would get hysterical for sure. Okay, let’s start over again: what’s the last thing you remember? Or well, maybe you prefer me to tell you what happened since you were found?”

Nero chose the second, deciding that he didn’t want to be sent to a mental hospital when beginning to talk about alternative dimensions and giant spiders.

With some interruptions and some steps back and forth, Dr. Dorens managed to make him understand what had happened since he collapsed. By what he could deduce, while he was unconscious V had managed to shot the flare, and thanks to it and to some ‘weird red lightings that had never seen ever before’ which Nero was pretty sure had been Griffon’s attacks, the people in the port were alerted that he and V had found trouble in the island. It was really early in the morning and the storm was still at his maximum, but Mr. Jenkins (Ronald, Nero learned then) and some members of his crew decided to go in one of the lifeboats to rescue them, bringing them back safely to Pitchbale.

“Wait, so that means I’ve been unconscious for half a day?”

Dr. Dorens chuckled and shook her head, rearranging the pillow behind Nero’s back with efficacy so that he was sitting against it more comfortably.

“A _little_ more. Today it’s May 27. You’ve been sleeping 36 hours straight.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide, causing the woman to continue.

“When you were brought here, you two were unconscious and with the pulse extremely weak, so your body decided to shut off for several hours in order to fully recover as a self-defense mechanism”, when seeing her inquisitive gaze, Nero deduced what the doctor was going to ask before she spoke, “which leads me to the question everyone in the hospital is doing to themselves: what exactly happened in the island? Because the poison we found in your bodies was extremely strange. Modesty apart, you are lucky that I made a Master in Toxicology, or we would have been forced to call an outside expert and your recovery would have been way slower.”

Nero scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Now the weird memories he had of him in Fortuna and in Urizen’s den had more sense. They had been surely provoked by those spiders’ poison.

He looked at the doctor, wishing that he could tell her the truth because the woman was really nice and it was obvious she asked because she was worried, not just out of gossiping, but by experience he knew that the less people knew about the presence of demons, the lower the risk of them getting into trouble from which it was difficult to escape alive.

“We were searching for...ruins, and we got bitten by some kind of big spider. But sorry, I’m not an arachnid freak and I have no clue what kind of animal it was.”

His mind was still too fuzzy to come up with a half-decent excuse, so he wasn’t surprised when Dr. Dorens didn’t look convinced at all. Nero managed to hold her gaze without blinking though, making her sigh in defeat after the brief stare contest.

“Whatever. You are lucky that we are small village because otherwise the police would be on you making questions. But…”, her tone became more serious, “...from now on make sure you avoid those ‘big spiders’. Or at least that you _both_ use antidote against them, because even if your friend is out of danger and is answering good to the treatment and the antibiotics, at first we weren’t sure if he was going to recover completely from it.”

Nero frowned.

“What do you mean with antidote?”

Dr. Dorens snorted softly, probably thinking that he was playing dumb to avoid answering questions.

“So now you’re going to tell me that an antidote miraculously appeared in your body?”

The woman changed her tone from ironic to confused when seeing Nero’s astonished expression.

“Wait, so you don’t remember taking it?”, Nero shook his head slowly, causing the woman to smile, “well, then that means that you have to thank your friend for it.”

Nero gulped while looking at V, now the previous memory of V making him drink something acquiring a new meaning. However, before he could gather his thoughts and feelings the doctor stood up, attracting his attention.

“So, since you look pretty fine I’ll go check my other patients, but if you need something don’t hesitate in pressing the nurse call button and someone (probably me) will be here in no time. We’ll leave you here tonight as a precaution but I’m positive you’ll be discharged tomorrow at most. Also…”, she lowered her tone, “...theoretically the lunch time has passed already, but if you’re hungry I can bring you something during my rest time on the down low.”

Nero didn’t need to answer: his rumbling stomach did it for himself, making him blush slightly as the woman looked at him teasingly.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He chuckled while scratching the back of his head, nodding with a smile.

“Thank you, Dr. Dorens.”

The woman huffed softly, shaking her head.

“Zaira is fine. 'Dr. Dorens' sounds horribly old.”

She had taken a couple of steps towards the door when she seemed to think about it better and came back to the bed, pressing the folder against her chest before talking with a secretive tone.

“Actually, can I ask you another thing?”, she signaled at V with her head, not bothering to hide her curiosity, “what’s his name? His real one I mean. Because I think that my boss won’t be too happy if he sees the ‘hot tattooed gothic’ written in his report.”

A laugh escaped Nero when hearing the woman’s not very professional description of V. He was about to say with frustration that he didn’t know the answer when a better idea occurred to him.

“Valeriano.”

Nero somehow managed to keep his face imperturbable while Zaira half-closed her eyes at him, practically snapping the next words.

“You’ve just made that up.”

Nero simply shrugged, trying not to let show that in fact he had said the first name that had come to his mind, but well, it was V’s fault for not wanting to say his real one.

“If you don’t believe me you can always go with the ‘hot tattooed gothic’.”

Zaira snorted softly, pointing at Nero with her pen threateningly before beginning to write in the report, which made him suppress a smirk while pointing himself a win.

“You better not be lying, or I will make sure you are served the worst food of the hospital.”

Nero thought it would be a cheap price to pay if he could see the face V would make when being addressed by that name.

Zaira then left him instructions of resting but she allowed him to stand after he insisted that he felt good enough to do so. After making Nero undergo a couple of tests to verify he could actually keep his balance perfectly, Zaira extracted his clean clothes from the only wardrobe of the room and left them on the bed. She also helped him adjust Overture even if he insisted he could do it alone and finally approached the door for second time to leave this time for real. 

He was about to thank her for everything again when, out of nowhere, a wild thought appeared in his mind, causing him to call for the woman before he had time to properly think about what he wanted to ask.

“Yes?”, Zaira inquired with curiosity when Nero said her name, realizing that at that point it would be even worse if he gave too much importance to the question.

“About V’s tattoos…”

When seeing the woman’s knowing smile, Nero realized that she had deduced what he planned to ask.

“You want to know where they reach?”, Zaira chuckled mischievously, “sorry, but I can’t share details of other patients with you. And don’t bother to ask me about his measures because that’s another detail I can’t share. Professional secrecy, you know?”

When Zaira closed the door Nero’s mouth was still half-opened. Yes, he was sure that Nico and that woman would get along, since they shared the same complete lack of shame, although he had probably deserved the sassy answer for doing such a stupid question. 

Nero changed into his now clean clothes, remaining in his grey t-shirt, pant and shocks, not feeling like putting on his heavy boots. He briefly checked that the book that almost cost them their lives was inside the backpack, together with V’s poetry one. He hesitated, throwing a side glance towards V’s sleeping form in the bed before grabbing it. He glanced through it and although he was about to return it to the bag he eventually took it with him. 

Since he couldn’t leave the room until the doctor gave him permission, Nero decided to sit in the chair next to V, with his legs crossed and the poetry book still untouched in his lap, since his attention was for now focused on the invoker. He briefly observed the monitor that controlled the the man’s steady pulsations before stopping on his face, V’s knitted brows indicating that the slumber on which he was immersed wasn’t as peaceful as his steady breathing seemed to indicate.

Nero still found hard to believe that V, who didn’t want to care about anyone for all the problems associated to it, had decided to risk his life in order to save his. Definitely, just when he thought he was closer to understand the invoker, that he had got a hold of how V thought and how he would act depending on the circumstances, this one managed to behave in an unpredictable way that shattered all what he believed to know, adding more mystery to his already secretive personality. 

Of course he wasn’t dumb, or at least not as dumb as some people seemed to think, so he was perfectly aware that the main reason why V had risked himself for him was that, as much as the invoker sucked at showing approval, the man had faith in his fighting skills and thought that he could beat Urizen, which was his ultimate goal. However, Nero couldn’t shake off the feeling that maybe it had been more than that. That maybe V was beginning to see him as a friend, and that therefore he had saved him not just out of necessity. But well, he guessed that he would never know because he was pretty sure that admitting such a thing would go against the man’s lone wolf code. 

He sighed with resignation. Truth to be told, he had never been a fan of riddles or puzzles. There wasn’t anything that he disliked more than mind games or people who weren’t direct. He had always thought it was pointless to try to get answers from those who clearly didn’t want to give them, that everyone had their own secrets and that no one should try to make them come afloat. There were enough demons out already and he had his hands full with those, so the last thing he needed was to voluntarily come across the ones that people wanted to keep in their closet. 

But somehow, all that philosophy didn’t apply with V. 

With the invoker Nero felt this...Damn, he didn’t know how to call it. It was not simple ‘curiosity’, and he didn’t want to call it ‘need’ because it would sound too desperate, but it was an urge to want to learn more about the man, and he didn’t know from where such an interest was born. Maybe the simple fact that V was so obsessed to keep his privacy was making him want to discover what he was hiding, or maybe the knowledge that V had also lost his parents at a young age made him feel closer to the invoker, which would surely explain that kind of weird connection he had never felt with anyone before.

Honestly, he had no clue, he thought while sighing again and beginning to read that book which V seemed to hold so dear.

The only thing Nero knew was that, for someone who always tended to reject incomprehensible enigmas, he felt that V was one he wouldn’t mind to invest time in deciphering. 

* * *

_“Submit.”_

_Vergil turned his head to the side to spit the blood flooding inside his mouth on the stained, stony floor of the dungeons where he was being held, inside the fortress where Mundus and his partisans had decided to establish until the demon had enough strength to visit the Human World once again._

_With his eyes closed he let out a difficult breath, his upper muscles feeling numb and sore for his forced, crucifixed position against the cell’s wall, against which he was chained by his wrists and ankles with demonic-imbued handcuffs impossible to break, even for him._

_He had always thought that humans were at a disadvantage, with those bodies and minds that were so easy to destroy and manipulate. However, one characteristics of the human body was that when being exposed to more pain that it could tolerate, the mind eventually shut off, allowing the body to stand things that, under normal circumstances, no person could handle._

_But, as he never got tired to tell himself, he wasn’t human._

_His demonic heritage allowed his body to heal way faster than a human one would, which meant that the demons that Mundus had under his service did not need to ‘give him a rest’. They didn’t have to worry about damaging him permanently, because what for others would be hours of recovery, for Vergil they were minutes. Just mere minutes of relative peace before feeling his wounds closing so that the demons could continue with their tireless task of making him surrender to Mundus._

_And part of him, a pathetic part of him, was beginning to serious consider taking such an offer, praying that his recovery didn’t work the next time so that he could get more time to rest, wishing it to_ **_stop_ ** _because he had already lost count of the times his injuries had closed and opened, each time worse than the previous._

_Vergil exhaled a self-mocking laugh, the simple action of moving his head to be facing the portal through which Mundus had spoken making all the muscles of his exposed, lacerated body protest in pain._

_He would have never imagined that, one day, he would feel jealous of those humans who could allow themselves to be weak, and loved, and protected._

_“Never”, he eventually snapped, his condescending stare fixing in the three red eyes floating on the void at the other side of the portal opened in front of him, “I will never become one of your slaves.”_

_Mundus just laughed, and Vergil felt then his wounds slowly healing once again, making him grit his teeth and turn his hands into fist to hide his frustrated, desperate thoughts._

_‘No.’_

_‘Not again.’_

_‘Not so soon.’_

_‘_ **_Please_ ** _.’_

_“Your spirit is strong, son of Sparda. Maybe even stronger than your father’s. But you will break”, Mundus said cruelly as the torturers approached Vegirl’s apparently impassible figure once again, “because sooner or later, everyone does.”_

_And eventually, he did._

 

“And are you sure he is still okay?”

 

V was forcibly woken up when hearing Nero’s impossible to mistake voice sounding rather close to him.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked towards place the boy’s voice had sounded. The search lead him to a rather young doctor signaling a monitor while Nero observed it frowning with suspicion. V exhaled a soft sigh, the memory that had haunted his sleep ending in the background when realizing they had eventually survived. He didn’t know yet how they had managed to leave the island but at least they were both alive, which was an outcome he hadn’t been entirely sure about when collapsing outside the Mirror Dimension.

“Yes, Nero, I’m sure”, the doctor was saying with a reassuring voice, “you see this value? He has 80 beats per minute, which is a completely normal heart rate.”

“Yeah, but that thing has reached 110 before.”

“That’s because he was probably having a nightmare and his pulse accelerated as a result, but I can _promise_ you he is okay: there’s no reason to panic.”

“Okay okay, but damn, I thought he was dying or something. That thing was sounding fucking loud.”

V could not _not_ intervene at that moment.

“I doubt it was louder than you right now.”

On V’s defense, even if he more or less expected that Nero was startled when he suddenly talked, the hop the devil hunter gave while cursing loudly surpassed his expectations.

“You _bastard._ ”

If V was in top condition, when hearing Nero snap those words he would have merely hinted a grin, or chuckled at most, but at that moment he found himself laughing when Nero managed to sound shocked, angry and relieved all at the same time. He was expecting a new string of curses or insults coming from Nero for having accidentally scared him like that, but the boy simply stared at him with his mouth half-opened and a dumbfounded expression in his face.

At that moment the devil hunter seemed to be aware of the face he was making because shook his head lightly and snorted while crossing his arms.

“Well, I’m glad to see that being about to die hasn’t changed your jerk personality.”

V returned the teasing grin, placing both of his hands on the bed to better sit down against the pillow.

“So am I to see that your delicacy keeps shining for its absence.”

Nero huffed, but he was smiling while approaching the chair to his bed, sitting on it while leaning his elbows on his knees.

“So, now that you are finally awake…”, V didn’t remember the presence of the doctor in the room until the woman talked with a casual tone, “...could you tell me how you feel, Valeriano?”

V blinked, frowning with confusion.

“I beg your pardon?”

It was his turn to be startled when the doctor exclaimed a frustrated ‘ _I knew it!_ ’ at the same time that Nero burst out laughing. He looked at them alternatively, feeling slightly annoyed for not being understanding the inside joke, although probably not as annoyed as he would normally feel because seeing Nero showing such a carefree reaction was rather comforting, especially considering that the last time V saw him, he wasn’t sure that the boy could make it.

After some seconds of V looking at Nero without even realizing, the doctor caught his attention by addressing him with a resigned smile.

“Since we didn’t find any identification in your belongings I asked your friend for your name, and he was kind enough to give me a fake one.”

V threw Nero a look that made this one shrug with his smile still threatening to break into laughs.

“What? It suits you.”

“No it doesn’t!”

The doctor answered for himself so V limited himself to roll his eyes, addressing the woman next.

“You can call me V, Dr.—”

He left the sentence hanging, making the woman laugh nervously.

“Sorry: Dr. Zaira Dorens, but Zaira is fine”, she cleared her throat, looking at him with curiosity, “so just V then?”

“Yes. I am afraid that my parents did not stand out for their imagination.”

It was certainly funny to see out of the corner of his eye at Nero trying to uselessly hide his stupor when finally realizing that he had never lied about his name to begin with.

During the following minutes the doctor informed him about his condition. She confirmed his suspicions about having a bruised rib and another one broken and recommended him to take it easy for the next weeks, warning against wrapping anything tightly around his chest area to avoid complications, since compression bandages could cause restricted breathing. Also, she told him that he could experience certain numbness because of the treatment, and that it was logical if he felt weaker and more tired than usual because of it. Finally, he would need to keep with the intravenous drip until the next day because although there wasn’t any trace of poison in his blood anymore, the analysis had indicated a clear nutrient deficiency, which made Nero intervene with an emphatic ‘ _That’s because he just eats shitty sandwiches_ ’ against which V obviously argued back.

With an amicable but firm tone Dr. Dorens concluded his diagnosis recommending repose in the hospital for another couple of days. V listened politely to all the woman’s indications, nodding as she talked while deciding that he didn’t plan to stay a single day more in that hospital. 

“...and that’s all”, Dr. Dorens finished saying with a smile before focusing on Nero, “dinner will be served in an hour and I’ll come check on you after it. Until then have fun but don’t tire yourselves out too much.”

V waited until the woman closed the door behind her to reach for the drip. He was about to remove it when, faster than V remembered the boy to be, Nero suddenly appeared next to him and grabbed his wrist, stopping his actions.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

V looked at Nero as if this one was really slow.

“I thought it would be obvious: we are leaving.”

“No, we aren’t.”

Nero’s cutting words made V’s eyes open slightly more, since it was the first time the boy used such a commanding tone with _him_. After recovering his capacity of speaking, V looked at the boy impatiently.

“I have spent a full day doing nothing else than sleeping, so I do not plan to delay his journey more.”

“Well, then you’ll have to change your plans because you have heard the doctor: you still need to rest and recover.”

“But I am recovered.”

“Nope, you are not.”

“Nero, if _you_ need more time to rest then simply say it, but _I_ am perfectly fine so I refuse to be in this place a minute longer.”

The boy held his gaze without blinking. Then, he nodded exaggeratedly slow while sitting down on the chair again, crossing his legs and arms while looking at him challengingly.

“Okay then. You want to leave? Go ahead. But I’m not helping you.”

V rolled his eyes, beginning to push the sheet covering him aside. 

“I don’t need you to.”

Nero didn’t say anything, but V felt the boy’s intense gaze on him while he sat on the side of the bed with more difficulty he had anticipated, scanning each one of his movements. V pushed back the urge of exhaling a deep, labored breath when feeling his head spinning, which forced him to stay still for some seconds before finally daring to place his feet on the floor, moment in which he finally noticed three things.

First, that his legs weren’t going to sustain him without his cane’s help.

Second, that the mentioned cane was leaning against the chair Nero was sitting on, and that the boy didn’t seem specially willing to give it to him in case of asking.

And third, that he had zero idea of where his clothes were. He guessed that they were in the wardrobe but even if he managed to reach it, he wasn’t sure about how he would be able to stand _and_ dress himself without the help Nero would surely refuse to provide.

V bit his tongue not to click it, finally aware that his evaluation of his state couldn’t have been more inaccurate. He pinched the bridge of his nose, delaying the moment of looking at Nero to find him showing a deserved ‘ _I told you_ ’ look. For second time that day, he failed in his prediction related to the boy’s reaction, since Nero was simply looking at him with a satisfied expression, as if being glad for him acknowledging his current impossibility of going anywhere.

“You sure you don’t need help to tuck you into bed again?”

V answered Nero’s light mocking comment with a soft snort, not noticing when Nero reached forward to help him put his sheet again in place as he lied on the bed again, since his efforts were devoted to recover his initial position without making too many grimaces. 

They remained in silence for some seconds until V broke it with an annoyed sigh.

“My apologies. I will try that my condition does not delay us much.”

When a new silence fell next, V looked at Nero, who was staring back at him with an incredulous expression.

“You kidding, right? Man, you have to practice with the apologizing thing.”

V looked at Nero with irritation, not in the mood for a lesson in the matter.

“Alright, and according to you, how exactly should I have done it instead?”

Nero exhaling an incredulous laugh to answer his sarcastic comment was his third wrong prediction.

“I meant that you do _NOT_ need to apologize for that. Jeez, if we are both here right now is because you got us out of that horrible place. Which reminds me…”, V’s heart skipped a beat when Nero offered him a grateful smile, “...thanks for saving me.”

V gulped subtly, fighting against the urge of averting his eyes from Nero’s unnecessarily kind expression, managing to barely do so.

“Well, you said it yourself”, Nero frowned without understanding, “‘ _first rule of the unit: always take care of your companions_ ’”

Nero’s eyes opened wider for a moment.

“Didn’t know you remembered that.”

“As I told you already, the problem with being observant is—”

“—that you also remember details you do not care about?”, Nero smirked proudly at V’s surprised expression, “what, you thought you were the only one in paying attention?”

A small smirk played at V’s lips when hearing Nero’s comment, but he didn’t invest time in analyzing why such a statement made his chest feel warmer, deciding that it was time to remove that cocky expression from the boy’s face, as much as it suited him to have it.

“Then you’ll be aware that, once again, you owe me one.”

This time, Nero’s reaction was the one he was expecting.

“Hey, that’s not true!”, he exclaimed in protest, “We are in a save-each-other’s-asses draw!”

“Well, I didn’t know it had a name, but I recommend you to count again, because you are clearly mistaken.”

“No, I’m _not_.”

“Are you sure?”

“Look, I’m so sure that I’m betting to pay our stay in the next hotel we visit.”

“Good. It will be a nice change that _you_ pay something for once.”

“Okay, you smartass, let’s start for the beginning.”

“Alright: I was the first in preventing you from being killed by Urizen. That’s one on me.”

“Yeah, but then _I_ beat that behemoth that almost killed you in the library. That’s on _me_.”

“Perhaps, but you are forgetting those pyrobats that would have surely killed you if it wasn’t because _I_ stopped you at that moment. That makes two on my side.”

“Fine, but later in the catacombs who was the one who stopped those scissors from cutting you head? _Me_ . So draw again. And yeah, in Mallet you clearly saved my life but I also saved yours when I dealt with those weird limbs things. So, as I’ve said: _draw_.”

“Well, I’m afraid you’re forgetting something rather relevant.”

“Oh, am I now?”

“One word, Nero: chimeras.”

Nero’s arrogant expression traveled to his when realizing he was right, causing the boy to exhale a frustrated ‘ _Shit!_ ’ that made V chuckle with amusement.

“So, you are paying for our next stay.”

“Damn”, Nero suddenly pointed at him with his index, “wait, and how I know you weren’t making that eggs things up? Maybe they wouldn’t have killed me and I would have simply peed them or something.”

V offered him a fake, obliging smile.

“Well, if you want more details of how the gestation process of a Chimera would have been in a clearly unprepared body, I can provide more details so that you believe me—”

“No no no no”, Nero interrupted him rushily, suffering a shiver, “we’ll be having dinner soon and I don’t want to lose the appetit.”

“Meaning that you will just eat a ration instead of two and half?”

Nero ‘glared’ at him, but the way he barked a laugh while leaning back against the chair didn’t sound bothered in the least.

“Okay, but I’m choosing the next hotel”, Nero warned, resuming their previous conversation, "I don’t want you to waste all my savings.”

The boy’s comment made V finally realize they still didn’t know what his next destination was going to be. 

“The book we found, is it intact?”

Nero nodded, standing up from the chair to approach the backpack lying on his own bed. The boy extracted the book from it and showed it to V.

“Yes, he also survived”, V extended his hand towards Nero but frowned when the last didn’t make any attempt to give it to him, storing it inside the backpack once again instead, “so you’ll be free to check it _after_ you are recovered.”

V opened his mouth to protest out of habit, but Nero’s stubborn expression combined with his own general tiredness convinced him that he would be fighting a battle with scarce probabilities of winning.

“At least do I have the right to enjoy some poetry or that is out of bounds as well?”

Nero looked at him with an purposely exaggerated shocked expression.

“Wow, maybe I should call Zaira. You asking if you _can_ do something instead of ordering to have it done? Man, you must have a fever.”

V rolled his eyes, but there wasn’t actual biting behind Nero’s words so he didn’t feel the need of replying anything back. He frowned though when Nero closed the backpack instead of reaching for the other book, and that’s when he noticed that all that time the book had been on the small table next to his bed. 

Nero must have noticed his confusion because he talked with a light hesitant tone before he could ask anything.

“There wasn’t much to do here so I took a look at it.”

V looked at Nero ironically.

“I presume it wasn’t much of your liking.”

Nero snorted but V detected the boy relaxing, as if he had been unsure of his reaction when learning he had grabbed the book without his permission. Actually, now that he thought about it, V was surprised at himself for not feeling bothered by it. Clearly, the medication that Dr. Dorens had prescribed was affecting him in some level, concretely to his usual inhibitions since he felt way too relaxed around Nero. Almost excessively relaxed. 

“Well, to know if I like it or not, I should understand at least a word”, Nero’s light frustrated comment interrupted V’s thoughts, “now for real: you understand that stuff?”

V smiled condescendingly when hearing the boy’s suspicious tone. 

“Of course I do. If I didn’t, I would be unable to find the correct words to boost my familiars’ powers.” 

Despite his confident answer, Nero kept showing the most skeptic expression ever.

“And are you sure you don’t do that reciting stuff just to look cool in battle?”

Nero was probably so focused on trying to prove that V’s knowledge was a facade that he didn’t notice the deepest meaning of his words, but V did, which made him talk with an amused grin.

“So you think I look cool while fighting.”

V made sure to spell it like a statement instead of a question, effectively making Nero gulp, and even if the boy recovered almost immediately with a louder snort than usual, the shadow of red tinging the tip of his ears betrayed he was embarrassed for the slip.

“Come on, _anyone_ can look cool saying incomprehensible shit no one can understand.”

V raised an eyebrow, causing Nero to half-close his eyes while reaching for the book to open it in a random page.

“Nero”, V began with barely concealed amusement, “what are you—?”

The named one cleared his throat loudly before looking at the book in concentration, ignoring his intervention for the sake of beginning to read aloud.

“ _Little Lamb who made the—the—_ thee?/ _Do-_ Dost though _—thou..._ Okay, _fuck_ , this doesn’t count, I accidentally picked the shittiest one!”

V missed practically all the excuses Nero said next, being busy covering his eyes with his hand while laughing from second-hand embarrassment. 

“This - doesn’t - count”, Nero spelled each word while V tried to compose himself, thing that almost he didn’t manage when seeing the boy’s utterly embarrassed expression.

“My apologies, Nero”, V said, managing to keep a more or less serious tone while Nero ‘glared’ at him, clearly predicting his following ironic words, “you have proved me completely wrong: I had never listened to such an outstanding poetry.”

V had the feeling that in case of having been in his best condition, Nero would have probably threatened him emptily, but at that moment the boy simply huffed, returning him his book.

“Okay, you expert poet, show me how is done”, as Nero crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest, V rapidly searched the same poem Nero had recited, “I bet you will stutter the same as me. The only reason why you don’t do it in battle is because you choose the easy ones and—”

 _“Little Lamb who made thee/Dost thou know who made thee/_ ”, Nero shut up the moment he began to clearly recite those verses, without making a single error or unnecessary stop, “ _Gave thee life & bid thee feed./By the stream & o'er the mead;/Gave thee clothing of delight. _”

V stopped reading to focus on Nero instead, who was looking at him with eyes and mouth slightly more opened. He smirked with confidence, reciting from memory the remaining content of the poem, each word slipping easily and with fluency from his lips.

“ _Softest clothing wooly bright;/Gave thee such a tender voice,/Making all the vales rejoice_ ”, he then closed the book, the small thump that provoked resounding in the quiet room, whose silence was broken once again when V finished the last two verses with his eyes never leaving Nero’s, “ _Little Lamb who made thee/Dost thou know who made thee._ ” 

The new silence that fell after he finished the poem was broken by Nero this time, when he let out a breath before exhaling an impressed chuckle. 

“Okay, maybe that was cooler than my poem.”

“ _Maybe_?”

The light outraged comment escaped V before he could even hold it back, causing Nero to bark a laugh.

“Okay, fine: you have proved you are _way_ better at reciting stuff, but you still have to prove you actually know what the fuck all that means.”

If V had been told that, one day, he would willingly accept to talk Nero about poetry, he would have called the person of making such a claim a fool. But there he was, explaining the meanings and metaphors hidden inside those ‘incomprehensible words’ to a surprisingly interested Nero, while being intrigued and also slightly impressed when the boy’s natural intuition allowed him to occasionally understand certain meanings that it had taken V some proper study.

At some point V lost track of how much time it had passed, being aware of the hour only when a nurse passed by to bring Nero dinner, since he couldn’t eat yet because of the drip and medication. The moment the man left though, they resumed their talking, the topic somehow managing to divert from poetry to fighting in a somehow natural way until they ended talking about the weirdest demons they had been forced to face, and for the way Nero’s dinner was practically untouched, it seemed that the conversation was being as interesting for the boy as it was being for him.

V had barely acknowledged that he was in fact spending an enjoyable time with Nero when Dr. Dorens entered the room, apologizing for checking on them so late after having been forced to attend an urgency. 

She examined V again, checking his pulse and body temperature, before giving him the second dose of the antibiotic. The woman warned him about its secondary effect of producing sleepiness and he noticed almost immediately, his eyes threatening to close minutes after the woman gave him the medication.

“I am fine”, he replied when hearing the woman recommending Nero to let him rest, reluctant to finish the conversation so soon, “I am not tired.”

He heard Nero and the doctor’s chuckles from far away. Way more far away than they really were.

“Dude, you are talking with your eyes closed.”

Really?, he thought when hearing Nero’s amused comment. He didn’t even remember having closed them, neither having left his book on the table or stopping leaning against the pillow to lie on the bed completely.

Perhaps he was in fact more tired than he thought.

“Good night, V.”

V was already dozing off and wasn’t able to fully understand Nero’s words, but he did not miss the way the boy pressed one of his arms leaning over the sheets across his body, the warmth and unexpected gentleness of the gesture being the last thing he felt before surrendering towards an induced sleep that, he felt, wouldn’t be as plagued as nightmares as the ones he used to have. 

* * *

“Damn, that shit is powerful. He is already asleep.”

Nero covered his mouth with his hand when Zaira placed a finger against her lips with a smile, but a chuckle still escaped him because the transition between lucid V and asleep V had been so fast that he would have missed in case of blinking. In fact, he was pretty sure that the man hadn’t even realized that he and the doctor had been the ones in tucking him into bed, or otherwise the invoker would have surely protested against it. 

“You are right: this medicine is rather strong”, Zaira admitted while turning off the lamp next to V’s bed, letting Nero’s one on, “but last night he was suffering from nightmares and this way we can assure he has a full night of rest.”

Nero didn’t say anything, still looking at V. Eventually he hadn’t even asked details about what had happened after he collapsed in the island. They had been busy talking about other things and the last thing he had wanted at the moment had been to bring up depressing topics. However, if V was usually suffering from nightmares and that poison somehow potentiated them...Shit. The invoker must have gone through a really tough night until the effect passed away, and just because the man decided to give him the antidote.

Damn, the next time V dared to suggest he was weak, he would kick his ass to remove that stupid idea from his head. 

He was so busy looking at V that he didn’t realize that Zaira, who had been about to put the privacy screen between their beds, stopped midaction, folding the screen instead so that Nero could still see the invoker from the bed. 

“You should rest too”, the woman said after some moments with a cheery smile that caught Nero’s attention, “that way maybe you could help with the festival.”

Nero, who was finishing putting on the pajama Zaira had lent him, looked at the woman with curiosity.

“A festival?”

The woman nodded, automatically retiring the sheets so that Nero lied on the bed, rearranging them later in autopilot mode.

“Yes, the day after tomorrow it’s the annual festival in Pitchbale to give thanks for a good fishing year and also to pray for the next year one.”

“And what happens if the year hasn’t been good?”, Nero inquired.

“Well, we still give thanks because it could always be worse”, Nero chuckled for the woman reasoning as this one kept talking with a rather enthusiastic tone, “tomorrow people will begin mounting the stalls and games. I will try to escape in the afternoon to help the people get everything ready, so if you are recovered enough and you feel like it, an extra pair of hands would be really welcome.”

Nero nodded, unable not to return the woman’s smile because the idea of taking a rest after all the travelling didn’t sound bad at all. However, the first thing he would do the next day after being discharged (since Zaira had practically confirmed he would be well enough to leave) was to explore the outskirts of Pitchbale in search of some demons. Maybe if he was lucky he could gather more monsters fluid and that way accelerate V’s recovery so that the man didn’t have to be in bed all the time, though he didn’t know if V would enjoy the idea of a festival. The invoker didn’t strike him as the type of person in assisting to that kind of events, but well, he knew by then that V was full of surprises so maybe the man had a wild side he hadn’t discovered yet.

At that moment a couple of knocks sounded at the door, so Zaira approached and sneaked her head without opening it completely. By then Nero was already yawning, and was about to lie completely on the bed after removing his mechanical arm again when he caught part of Zaira’s conversation.

“I’m really sorry, but the schedule for visits finished two hours ago. You will have to come back tomorrow morning.”

“But we won’t be here tomorrow morning! Please, it will be just a minute, I promise!”

Nero’s eyes opened more in recognition when hearing the voice of the boy outside.

“Finn?”

Him calling the unexpected visitant’s name caused the boy to  stomp inside the room, making Zaira exclaim a reproaching ‘ _Hey!_ ’ that the boy ignored to approach Nero with a big, relieved smile. 

“Nero! I’m so glad you are okay!”, Zaira, apparently giving up on making the boy leave, resigned herself to hush at him so that he kept the voice down, making Finn mutter a hurried ‘sorry’ before continuing talking, “how is the poet? Is he okay?”

Nero exhaled a chuckle when hearing the apelative, nodding reassuringly.

“Yeah, we are both fine, thanks to you”, he palmed the boy’s right arm, “we were told Mr. Jenkins and you were among the ones who went to rescue us to the island.”

Finn nodded effusively.

“Yes, my grand—Mr. Jenkins didn’t think it twice to go after you. At first I was going to stay on the port because of the scary rumors surrounding the island, you know? But I carried my pen and as the poet said it gave me strength to join everyone and help!”

Nero had honestly got lost with that pen story but Finn looked so proud and happy about it that he simply nodded as well, returning the smile. At that moment Zaira cleared softly her throat, causing Finn to gasp and mutter an also hurried ‘ _I know I know_ ’ before keeping talking even more quickly, making Nero have difficulties in following him.

“Anyway, tomorrow we are going fishing again very early in the morning and depending on the catch we don’t know if we’ll have time to go to the festival so I just wanted pass by to say bye in case we don’t see you again. Oh, and also to return this.”

Nero frowned when Finn extracted something from his pocket, his heart stopping when seeing the boy sustaining _his_ pendant.

“One of the guys found it in the lifeboat that brought us back. It seems that you lost it when we put you in the boat and it was so important to you that I thought you would be worried sick so I hurried to return it to you as fast as possible.”

Nero gulped loudly, taking the pendant in his hands while guiltiness slowly invaded him. 

Until that same moment he hadn’t even noticed that the pendant wasn’t between his belongings, neither around his neck, the place where it _always_ was. 

And now that he realized, he hadn’t even thought about calling Kyrie to tell her how he was doing. Hell, he hadn’t even thought about how Kyrie was doing.

Shit. 

What the hell had he been thinking not to notice it before?

“Uhm...I promise we weren’t planning to keep it”, Nero didn’t realize the tension invading his body until hearing Finn’s light scared tone, the boy clearly misinterpreting the anger he was feeling at himself as if it was directed at him, “I brought it here the moment we noticed and—”

“H-Hey, of course I know that”, Nero said, snapping out of his thoughts and making sure to smile at the boy, “thanks a lot, Finn. I’m really happy to have it back.”

 _‘Yes, sure, for that reason you didn’t even miss it_ ’.

Pushing away his guilty thoughts he said goodbye to Finn, who sincerely thanked Zaira a lot for letting him in. The boy obtained a half-annoyed, half-amused ‘ _You busted in, I didn’t let you_ ’ from the doctor that made the boy chuckle before leaving the room waving his hand, leaving them both alone once again.

“That’s a beautiful pendant.”

Nero came back again to reality when hearing Zaira’s question, forcing himself to believe that maybe it hadn’t been _that_ weird not having noticed the pendant disappearance. After all he and V had been about to die, so it had perfect sense that at the moment the man’s recovery had taken priority over other things. He just had to call Kyrie in the morning, apologize for not having warned sooner and everything would be normal again. 

“Yes. It was a present from my girlfriend.”

A silence fell next, during which Zaira blinked slowly.

“Your girlfriend”, she repeated, as if thinking that she had heard wrong, but Nero’s confused face must have convinced that she had heard it right, “wait, so V and you are not—”

She joined both of her index together a couple of times, causing Nero’s eyes to be about to leave their orbits for the assumption.

“ _WHAT_?!”, he cursed when his shout made V shift in the bed, though he fortunately kept sleeping, “n-no way! We are just partners. Friends.”

Zaira blinked again before exhaling a loud laugh, covering her mouth when realizing she wasn’t predicating with the example.

“Damn, I was sure that you were together! Or well, that at least you were trying to be there.”

Nero was going to insist that there was absolutely nothing between them besides friendship when seeing Zaira biting her lower lip hesitantly while looking at V. 

“Okay, I know this may not be very professional but in that case, between you and me…”, Zaira looked at him again and lowered her voice to talk next with an expectant tone, “...do you know if he is single?”

Nero blinked, Zaira’s question taking him completely by surprise, although now that he thought about it, some of the reactions the woman had had around V, beginning with the way he had described him in the report or how she behaved more nervously around him, should have given him a clue about the woman’s interest for the invoker. The fact that Nero had just noticed now was only due to the fact that he had the capacity of observation of a rock, as Nico used to tell him.

“So he isn't. Should have imagined it.”

When hearing Zaira’s disappointed tone after he didn’t answer immediately, Nero couldn’t explain why his first impulse was not to add anything, even if by basing on V’s philosophy of not getting attached to anyone left pretty clear the man didn’t have anyone special in his life. 

Fortunately, he kicked that irrational reluctance away and eventually answered.

“I think he is”, Zaira’s eyes illuminated, “I mean, he is not the most open guy ever, but I’m pretty sure he isn't with anyone.”

Surely the tiredness was at fault when it took him a little to let those words out, and also for the tension that invaded him when Zaira showed the brightest smile ever. 

“Oh, nice to know. Well then, I will be a good doctor and let you sleep. I will be here first time in the morning to do the final check-up, so if everything goes as it should you would be free by afternoon to hopefully help us with the festival.”

Zaira then asked him if he wanted to call someone, since the only reason she hadn’t suggested him doing that was because she assumed V and him were together, and after Nero assured her he preferred to call Kyrie the next day the woman left with a last cheery ‘ _Goodnight_ ’. 

And of course, Nero was sure that tiredness was also the culprit of the pang of annoyance that assaulted him when Zaira left the room happily humming a song to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was going to be a more shorter one for once, but I got carried away finally writing V and Nero bonding :DDD


	13. (May 28) - The festival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always suck at estimating how long a chapter is going to be and this one it is _quite a monster_ ^^U However, splitting it into two wasn't an option because the rest of the days I have planned would have been affected, so I just hope you were looking forward to the not-official-date because it came longer than I initially planned xD
> 
> Also, this new update has come up faster than usual because I will be mostly unable to write from Friday to Monday and I didn't want to post this too late, sooo I hope there aren't too many evil typos around <3 <3

**_May 28 -  3:46 p.m._ **

“V, someone is coming!”

When hearing Griffon’s hushed warning the invoker rapidly hid the old book under his pillow, together with the pen Shadow had managed to steal in his shadow form from one of the nurses who passed to check on him. That was the third time he was forced to hide his current activities from Dr. Dorens, since no matter how much he insisted he felt alright, that woman resoundingly refused to let him do something that could ‘strain him’. 

He had barely invoked back his two familiars while lying against the pillow when the door opened. The light creaking sound was immediately followed by heavy steps that, definitely, didn’t belong to Dr. Dorens.

“Man, you’re terrible at pretending to sleep.”

V opened his eyes to offer an annoyed glance at Nero, while letting his familiars out again.

“I cannot be _that_ terrible if Dr. Dorens hasn’t noticed it.”

Nero snorted unconvinced, removing his coat but keeping grabbing the shoulder bag he was carrying. When V woke up the devil hunter had already been discharged first time in the morning and when he asked about him the people of the hospital answered with an ambiguous ‘do some errands’, so he was about to ask the boy about it when Nero talked again.

“Well, if you have your pets back, I guess you are feeling better.”

Predictably, Griffon huffed when hearing the nickname. 

“Hey, this ‘pet’ helped save your ass, you ungrateful brat!”

“I know”, Nero patted Shadow’s head with the hand that wasn’t still fumbling inside the bag while looking at Griffon with a small smirk that wasn’t as teasing as usual, “and I owe you one for it, chicken.”

Seeing Griffon grow mute when hearing the boy’s thanks was something weird but worthy to witness, V thought before Nero suddenly handled him a bottle full of a rather disgusting looking green liquid.

“Here. This is for you”, V looked at Nero questioningly while taking the bottle, “I’m sure you’ll be happy: I brought some yummy monster fluid to accelerate your recovery.”

V blinked twice, looking at a too smirking Nero with stupor.

“Where did you get it?”

“I bought it at a rather good price in the shop corner.”

V realized the boy had managed to fool him when Nero barked a laugh. Certainly, he wasn’t as his most yet if he had fallen for such an obvious lie.

“I went to kill some demons. People around the village said that some villagers ended hurt a month or so ago in one of the abandoned beaches when ‘some weird lizards’ attacked them, so I went to investigate and came across a couple of blades”, Nero pointed at the bottle, “you better thank me: I almost had to squeeze out those bastards to get that shit.”

V didn’t answer immediately, scanning Nero and making this one show a confused expression that soon turned into an understanding one.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t hurt.”

Being so obviously caught made V tense. His first impulse was to say he wasn’t worry at all, but somehow he felt that he would sound too defensive so he decided to simply open the bottle and proceed to drink. 

The boy made even more grimaces than him as he swallowed the thick liquid, while Griffon let out disgusted ‘ _Yuck_ ’s that didn't help to make him forget how bad it tasted. V was forced to cover his hand with the back of his knuckles not to gag when finishing drinking the last drops. He exhaled a deep breath and left the bottle on the small table next to the bed, focusing his attention on Nero next to see this one looking back at him with an impressed expression.

“Thank you for the meal, Nero.”

Despite the ironic component of his words, his eyes were serious when looking at Nero, in order to indicate he appreciated the man’s effort. Nero nodded with a smile, signaling towards the door again with his human hand.

“Okay, gotta go: I promised I would help with the festival. I guess that if that shits works you will be sent home tonight, so if I’m not back when that happens you can go to the ‘ _The Wild Fish_ ’ inn. We are staying in room 202.”

V raised an eyebrow.

“Only one room? And I am the ‘penny-pitcher’?”

“The place was full because of the festival, you smartass: otherwise I would have rented two.”

Maybe V was imagining it but Nero had sounded way too defensive, which made him spell the next sentence with his usual smooth tone.

“Well, as long as there are two beds.”

By basing on the way Nero’s eyes opened a little wider, V deduced that it hadn’t occurred to the boy to ask the innkeeper about such a detail when renting the rooms, which was confirmed when Nero snorted with a fake-convinced ‘ _there are_ ’ before abandoning the room with a hasty goodbye. 

“I bet that he is going to the inn to ask about it”, Griffon squawked, causing V to exhale a chuckle because he had thought the same. 

He didn’t see Nero the rest of the afternoon, and fortunately Dr. Dorens seemed to be busy herself because when she passed to check on him it had been an hour since V finished filtering the places they would be visiting next, narrowing them to two. 

The doctor examined him and V managed to keep his face as imperturbable as possible when seeing the woman’s shocked expression, after realizing his ribs were now perfectly fine. It was evident that she suspected something weird had happened for the interrogatory that followed, but when all the nurses confirmed V hadn’t moved from the bed in all day, the woman gave up.

“You could leave something for the rest, you know?, she suddenly said, her face still focused on the report she was updating while sitting on the edge of the bed, next to V, “intelligent, strong, attractive, and with a high speed of recovery. Not bad, Mr. V.”

V’s eyebrows raised a little when hearing the unexpected compliment. The doctor’s flattery had been quite direct, but the light forced casualness of her tone and the faint blush of her cheeks let him know the woman was more nervous than she wanted to show. A hint of a self-mocking smirk appeared in his lips when recalling that the first thing he felt when looking at his current form was distress, even rejection for a body that clearly wasn’t as strong as it should to successfully fulfill his purpose, so he couldn’t help to find funny, and definitely not unpleasant, that some people considered his appearance appealing.

“Well, Dr. Dorens, with the exception of the speed recovery, about which I cannot state anything, I would dare to say you are not missing any of those qualities.”

Dr. Dorens stopped writing in the report to look at him playfully, her cheeks a little redder than before.

“Now I know why you like poetry: you also use too many words to say a simple ‘ _You too_ ’.”

The woman accompanied her teasing words by standing up, but her bright smile showed she had liked the returned compliment.

“So, since the healing has been way faster than I was anticipating, there’s no need for you to spend the night here. And also…”, the woman’s smile managed to grow even more, “...there’s absolutely no problem in you attending the festival if you feel like it, so I _really_ hope seeing you tomorrow. I can guarantee you won’t regret joining us.”

By when V had found a polite way to say he wasn’t especially fond of that kind of celebrations Dr. Dorens had already abandoned the room, so he contented himself with exhaling a resigned sigh.

In roughly 15 minutes he was out of the hospital and on his way to the place Nero had booked for that night, which was a mere 10 minutes walk from it. He had to wait a little to be attended, since Pitchbale festival attracted more tourism than V had imagined, and when he finally approached the reception counter to ask for room 202 he had to conceal an amused grin when the innkeeper commented that there had been a misunderstanding with the beds, and therefore they would be staying in a different room.

V was surprised when he stepped inside the room, because despite the old state of the building, the [ room ](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/12/b0/30/5f/one-of-two-rooms-in-a.jpg) was small but pretty decent. Since Nero’s things were placed next to window he guessed the boy had already picked the bed closer to it, so he proceeded to leave his scarce belongings in the other one, situated exactly in front of the door. He had barely changed into the pajama he had been given in the hospital and was about to enter the bed when his familiars manifested in the room

“So, tomorrow is the festival”, Griffon said with a cheery tone, posing on the ledge next to the window while Shadow jumped in Nero’s empty bed, lying on it while yawning, “eager to go?”

V exhaled a soft snort, glad to be able to turn on his side while lying without having any dropper attached to him anymore.

“I recall you _he_ attended more events of this type. It isn’t anything new, so I will pass.”

V closed his eyes, missing that way the glance Griffon and Shadow interchanged before being startled by a loud caw.

“Sorry, kid, but you aren’t missing it.”

He opened his eyes again, raising an unamused eyebrow when hearing the bird's order.

“And I’m not missing it because...”

“...because you can’t fool us, V. You can try to pretend all you want but it’s obvious you want to go.”

V blinked, looking at Griffon as if this one wasn’t very clever.

“And why exactly are you so sure that I’d be willing to participate?” 

“Because it’s also obvious you want to spend time with the boy.”

V’s arrogant expression was momentarily replaced by one of stupor, before recovering the initial one.

“Griffon, I remind you that Nero and I have been travelling together for almost two weeks now, so I fail to see the difference in spending even more time at the festival.”

“Then you must be veeery dumb because clearly there’s a BIG difference.”

“In that case, please, enlighten me with your wisdom, because I fail to see it.”

Griffon exhaled a long patient sigh.

“The difference is that it will be the first time _you_ both spend some time together without having a justifiable reason behind it.”

V wasn’t used to be left without arguments, but when hearing Griffon he was unable to find the appropriate words to retort against the bird’s comment. He looked at Shadow, as if expecting the panther to be on his side. However, the feline familiar simply nodded, agreeing with the bird and causing V to exhale a sigh before changing positions in the bed, facing up with his fingers interlaced.

He didn’t like to admit it, but Griffon had a point. 

Up till then, the only reason why Nero and him always stuck together was because they had a common goal, and they needed each other’s help to fulfill it. But as the bird had said, there wouldn’t be any motive to do the same the next day, the same way there hadn’t been when Nero decided to spend time with him while he recovered. And the fact that V had enjoyed it the previous day, that somehow he was seeking to experience it again, was as surprising as it was unsettling.

“Vergil would never allow himself to waste time in such a trivial thing.”

In a Nero-like way, the words escaped his mouth without properly thinking them. After a small pause Griffon talked, no trace of mocking in his tone this time.

“Maybe because he never had the chance to allow himself doing so. But now, you have it. And after what you both passed in Mallet...damn, you definitely deserve to let your hair down!”

An involuntary chuckle escaped V when hearing Griffon’s choice of words. He gulped subtly, throwing a glance towards the bird.

“So your wise advice is that I lower my guard as if I was a mere human?”

Griffon sighed when hearing V’s ironic but also hoping words. 

“You _are_ human, V. You deserve to act like one for once.”

V exhaled a deep sigh, looking at the ceiling again before closing his eyes for second and definitive time. He decided to put an end to the conversation right there, while thinking that Griffon was riskely assuming that it entered in Nero’s plans to involve himself with them during the festival, when chances were high that the boy wanted to be on his own after being ‘forced’ to tag along with him for so long. For that reason, until the next day came he preferred to assume that he would be spending a calm day in the inn, before looking forward to something that maybe never came to be. 

* * *

“Come on, V, time to wake up!”

Nero thought too late that maybe he had opened with excessive emphasis the curtains of the room when V frowned while covering his eyes with one hand, shifting in bed from his curled position to be facing up while exhaling an incredibly annoyed grunt that confirmed the man didn’t have a good wake up. 

“Nero, give me one good reason so that I do not command Shadow to attack you right now—”

He wasn’t able to suppress a laugh when V stopped talking while sitting on the bed, showing an expression of stupor that clearly had something to do with the [ outfit ](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/145573fa-4ecc-4725-800b-59aaef9ed7eb_1.13329927907275f7425cba035d940088.jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF) he was wearing, consisting of a medieval pirate t-shirt, a wide belt with a holster hanging from it, and a pair of dark trousers that managed to combine with his normal boots. Since outside was rather hot Nero had rolled up both of his sleeves until they reached mid-arm, also leaving some of the laces of the t-shirt loose. Zaira had also lent him a handkerchief to tie around his head but he had given up at the third attempt, so now the clothing was hanging from one of the trousers pockets.

“What are you wearing?”, V managed after some moments.

“My festival suit. All the people are wearing one”, Nero signaled towards his messed bed, “that is yours, by the way. And before protesting try it on, because I think Zaira nailed your measures.”

‘ _Which wasn’t a surprise for how damn much she was looking at you_ ’, Nero found himself thinking out of nowhere before pushing it away.

V exhaled a patient sigh but Nero realized it was just for show, since the invoker didn’t waste much time in stepping out of the bed to grab the green [ coat ](https://press-start.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DMC5-VCostume-EX.jpg) with yellow patterns lying on it. V observed it for some moments, turning it to better examine it, and after a short pause he tilted his head to the side.

“Actually, it’s not that bad”, he looked at him with a curious smirk, “I presume you are a pirate, but what I am supposed to be?”

“A high and mighty magician.”

His prompt answer made V hum in approval before proceeding to remove his pajama t-shirt. Nero couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering through V’s inked skin, surprised to discover that now he could more or less recognize which of those tattoos would vanish if V decided to invoke Griffon or Shadow. When realizing where his eyes were going while following the marked skin, he rapidly averted his gaze while muttering a he-hoped casual ‘ _Will wait outside_ ’ when V was in the process of tying his tooth pendant around his neck.

Nero turned the corner of the small corridor and climbed down the set of stairs leading to the reception. There were several other people dressed of a great variety of characters. He greeted the ones he recognized from the previous day when he went to help install the different stalls and booths before approaching the innkeeper, in order to ask the woman if there had been any calls while he was absent, obtaining a negative answer.

The day after waking up he had called Kyrie but she hadn’t answered. He wasn’t worried because if something had happened to her he was sure Morrison would have found a way to let him know, so he had left a message in Devil May Cry saying they would be staying in Pitchbale for the next couple of days, hoping that the man heard it and warned Kyrie about it. Speaking of which, he hoped to be able to fix the pendant, since the chain had broken when he was dragged to the lifeboat which had forced him to leave the jewel in the room.

“Wow, such a handsome pirate!”

Nero was startled by that voice and by a hand patting amicably his shoulder. He turned around to see Zaira there, smiling happily.

“Hey, doc”, Nero greeted, looking at her outfit with light confusion, “you are a...dancer?”

“Fortune teller. Although dancing is my second passion so you weren’t _that_ mistaken”, her tone turned lightly reproachful when talking next, “hey, why aren’t you wearing my handkerchief?”

His hesitant ‘ _Uhm…_ ’ mixed with the way he scratched the back of his head was enough answer for the woman, who exhaled a chuckle while reaching for the clothing herself.

“Here. Let me.”

Zaira gestured so that Nero lowered his head and with efficiency she began to adjust the band around his forehead. In less than a minute, the band was perfectly secured around his forehead and the woman tapped it softly with satisfaction.

“Done! _Now_ you are a perfect pirate.”

Nero thanked her before the woman took her leave saying she needed to finish preparing her stall, while encouraging him to go to visit her. She had barely left the inn in direction of the street when he saw V climbing down the stairs, and Nero couldn’t explain why but he felt a little glad when the meeting between the invoker and Zaira was avoided. 

V was dressing his usual clothes with the exception of the coat, since he was wearing the new one, and his hair, that had tied in a loose ponytail leaving some black strands framing his face. The only accessory that V was missing was the cane, thing that made Nero feel relieved because that meant that, for once, the invoker was feeling as fine as he claimed.

“You ready, Mr. Magician?”

V rolled his eyes when hearing the appellative, offering Nero a teasing grin next.

“Right after you, Mr. Cabin Boy.”

“What the—I’m a _pirate_ , you jerk!”

“My apologies, but a pirate without a boat has no right to be called as such.”

“Hey, I’m not seeing your spell book anywhere either so—”, Nero shut up when seeing V’s arrogant smirk, “shit, you have brought it, right?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t be a proper Magician otherwise, don’t you think, Cabin Boy?”

“Damn, now I’m regretting having brought that monster fluid.”

For the way V’s grin kept being in place, it was evident that the invoker knew that his complain wasn’t true at all, although probably the fact that Nero had been fighting a smirk during the whole banter had also betrayed that he was in fact glad that the invoker could join him during the day.

* * *

Even if Nero had helped mounting everything the previous day, the boy didn’t need to show V the way: it was enough to follow the disguised villagers and the multiple hanging ornaments decorating the narrow streets, since all of them lead to the seafront where the festival was taking place. 

When they arrived both the promenade and the beach were already filled with people who crowded around the different stalls and activities that had been prepared. Different music could be heard depending on the area you approached, and V wasn’t the least surprised when their first stop was the food area, since Nero had gone to pick the costumes first time in the morning and hadn’t had time to eat ‘almost anything’, which V translated into Nero having a breakfast that wasn’t enough for him, as it usually happened.

“So, what do you want?”, Nero inquired while stopping in one of the multiple food booths, the pirate band again in his pocket after he decided he felt too hot with it, “and you better not say ‘nothing’ because you were almost anemic in the analysis so you _have_ to eat.”

Nero looked at him as if he was committing a deadly sin when he eventually chose a salad roll and a coffee instead of the excessively greasy food of the other stalls. On the contrary, the tray that Nero chose was about to overflow by when the boy finished ordering, forcing Nero to walk rather carefully for once.

The place was rather full by then and it took them a little to find a free stop in one of the benches scattered around. Nero was already leaving the tray on the bench and V was about to sit when his attention was drawn to a puppet theatre situated some meters away from them. There were several children sitting on the floor and laughing at the puppeteer as this one made their dolls perform, but V could only stare with his jaw tense at the hands of the man moving those lifeless objects, controlling them with invisible strings to make them move, and talk, and _kill_ …

“Hey”, Nero’s voice woke up from his wondering, dark thoughts, “you okay?”

V was too slow to avert his eyes from the little theatre before Nero looked in the same direction with his characteristic lack of subtleness. V tensed when Nero’s attention shifted to him once again, getting ready for the question that was surely coming, but he was surprised when the boy suddenly grabbed the tray again.

“Oh look: I think here’s a free spot next to the sundaes booth.”

He didn’t have time to check the place Nero was ambiguously pointing out, since the devil hunter began to walk the fastest he could among the tables once again. At first V wasn’t sure if Nero had actually seen a seat or if he had pretended to do so, but his suspicions of the boy having noticed his discomfort and making up the excuse were confirmed when they got close to the sundaes area and Nero let out an unconvincing, ‘ _Shit, I think the seat was taken_ ’, which made them spend another five minutes until they found a new empty spot that this time was close to the balloon pop game, at the exact opposite side where the puppets theatre was.

“Finally”, Nero whistled, beginning to devour one of the multiple appetizers he had ordered, “I didn’t know this would be so damn full”, after loudly swallowing he signaled a rather giant ration of chips with sauce that he had also ordered and that now was between them, “when you get tired of eating grass, try some. They are awesome and I think the ration was for two. Or it was three?”

V didn’t say anything, observing Nero as this one kept rambling, completely unaware of his expression.

“Thank you.”

Nero stopped when he was about to drink his milkshake, blue eyes slightly shocked when he noticed V’s green ones on him. The boy didn’t break eye contact for some seconds until finally giving a brusque nod. 

“Sure. Go ahead.”

The boy answered as if V had thanked him for sharing the food, but the invoker hinted a smile when Nero’s eyes showed he had understood what V really meant. Nevertheless V reached for one of the chips for the sake of keeping with the game, answering with an unenthusiastic ‘ _Not too bad_ ’ intended to tease Nero that fulfilled his purpose when the boy began to heatedly defend his food over V’s musty one.

They easily resumed their conversation, and V was just pointing out that Nero’s t-shirt began to look like a pirate real one for all the food stains he was getting when suddenly they were alerted by the sound of a group of children, not older than 7 or 8 years old, protesting in frustration rather close to them.

“Aaaaah, we were so close!!”

“Yess, one more balloon and it was ours!”

“I should have done it! If you hadn’t failed the last…”

“But that’s not fair! You failed the second!”

“I told you it would be easier if we went for the violet.”

“But who wants a violet bear?!”

“I do!”

V honestly didn’t know what the ruckus was about, but for the way Nero exhaled a sigh with a smile and separated from the bench, it seemed that the devil hunter did.

“Hey, guys, do you need help with something?”

The group of children was initially startled when seeing an adult approach them with a relaxed stance, hands leaning loosely on his hips. The children interchanged some looks, but Nero’s good aura seemed to convince them the young man could be trusted and all of them began to talk at the same time. While still sitting on the bench V more or less understood that those children had been really close to get a rather giant plushie by popping up some balloons, but they had failed some shots and hadn’t been succeeded in the task.

Nero hummed loudly when the children finished their explanation, crossing his arms and making the front of his t-shirt reveal a little more of skin, detail that V wasn’t sure why he had paid such attention.

“Okay, what if I try to get you the plushie and in exchange…”, Nero signaled one of the children who was also dressed as a pirate, “...you give me that cool eye patch?”

The boy touched it with his mouth half opened.

“You just want this?”, Nero nodded incredibly serious, causing the boy to nod eagerly, “s-sure!”

“Great”, V, who hadn’t missed anything of the interchange, wasn’t expecting that Nero turned to him, “magician, one of your lucky spells would come in handy to guarantee our success.”

V blinked, tensing next when all the children’s attention shifted to him.

“He can do that?”, a girl said in awe while Nero nodded with conviction.

“Oh, yes. His spells are the most powerful.”

V offered him a deadpan expression while the children exhaled respective impressed ‘oooh’. He was about to retort that maybe wasting his powers in getting a toy was a little excessive when one of the girls approached him with her hands joined in a plea.

“Mr. Magician, could you cast a lucky spell, pretty please? Look!”, the girl fumbled inside her small purse to offer him a handmade beaded bracelet, “I can give you one for free if we get the toy!”

V shifted in his seat, feeling utterly defeated when the girl’s puppy expression make him exhale a sigh and stand up to get close to the group, causing all the children to let out cheery ‘ _Yeeees!_ ’ while Nero looked about to burst out laughing at any moment. 

“I’ll make you pay for this”, V muttered softly so that Nero was the only one in hearing him, causing the boy to show an unimpressed expression.

“I’m trembling in fear.”

V sighed again and extracted his book of poems, feeling the children focused on him while he did so. He cleared his throat, made a pause (that was a little theatrical even if he would never admit it) and then chose an inoffensive poem that wouldn’t accidentally invoke Griffon or Shadow. All the children stared at him eye-wided, their attention finally shifting to Nero when this one exhaled a determined ‘ _Let’s go get that plushie!_ ’ before approaching the balloon pop booth.

The invoker initially observed the scene with his arms crossed and his usual imperturbable expression, but at some point an amused smirk escaped him when seeing the children getting more and more into the game with each shot, super tense and holding their breaths whenever Nero threw a dart towards the balloons. Needless to say, Nero didn’t fail a single shot, making the children shout happily when the stall attendant reached for the gigantic teddy bear that was almost as big as them.

The children abandoned the area waving their hands enthusiastically while carrying the gigantic toy, and no matter how much time V insisted the girl she could keep her bracelet: he ended with a pink and violet beading brace around his wrist.

“It looks good on you.”

When hearing Nero’s teasing comment V snorted softly, before his eyes diverted behind the boy with an amused smirk.

“I think that your services are required again.”

Nero, now with the pirate eyepatch, followed V’s eyes, cursing softly when seeing a group of small girls, apparently all of them sisters, looking at him with expectation next to the balloon booth.

“Damn.”

“I thought you liked children.”

“Yeah, but not when they exploit me.”

However, despite Nero’s protests, he was as much into it as before when trying to get a rather expensive tricycle for the girls. V was about to sit to observe how Nero was wrapped around those ladies’ fingers when he heard someone call his name from a point on his right. The sound led him to a fortune teller stall, his eyes slightly opening more in recognition when seeing Dr. Dorens waving her hand at him from there. 

“Would you like a future prediction? Casually I have a discount for Magicians.”

V hinted a smile, approaching the stall when seeing that Nero was still busy with the balloons.

“Perfect timing then.”

His ironic reply made the woman chuckle while signaling the empty seat in front of her. V’s eyes wandered through the round table situated between them, where a crystal ball, cards and other mystic pieces were scattered.

“Okay, what would you like to ask?”, the woman asked while reaching for the tarot cards, “before making your choice maybe you should know I am incredibly talented with my predictions in the health department.”

V hummed, leaning his hands on the table as the woman began shuffling the cards, deciding to follow the joke a little.

“That is why you combine your divination abilities with your work in the hospital, Dr. Dorens?”

The woman sighed, looking at V with a light exasperated smile.

“Please, I told you already to call me Zaira.”

V tilted his head a little with curiosity.

“I presume your name comes from the Persian term ‘pilgrim’”, the woman’s eyes opened more when hearing the invoker’s accurate supposition, which made this one offer her a grin, “you are dressed as a gypsy fortune teller, so it wasn’t very hard to deduce your name’s origin.”

Zaira laughed clearly impressed.

“Yes, my grandmother was a gypsy. She chose the name for me, and also because it means—”

“‘Rose’ in Arabic.”

The woman’s smile grew.

“Exactly. That was her favorite flower: beautiful but with dangerous thorns.”

The woman’s words immediately reminded V to a poem, the content of it easily coming to him.

“ _Then I went to my pretty rose tree,/To tend her by day and by night;/But my rose turned away with jealousy,/And her thorns were my only delight._ ”

He didn’t realize he had in fact said the verses aloud until seeing the woman’s light dumbfounded expression, that she proceeded to remove with a chuckle.

“You surely are a good magician”, her eyes were fixed on him while she fanned some of the cards, “I’m sure you can make anyone fall under your spell.”

V sustained the woman’s gaze as she showed the cards fan facing down. He was rather sure that presenting the cards like that was more suitable for a card trick than for a proper tarot reading, but he decided to keep the comment for himself and reach for a card. However, before he could pick one Zaira made a fluent movement with her hand so that a specific one stuck out the group. V looked at the card, then back at the woman, and eventually accepted it.

“Can you show it to me?”

V did so, causing the woman to hum to herself.

“So, ‘The Lovers’. It seems that romance could smile you soon.”

The woman’s flirting in the hospital hadn’t gone unnoticed by V, and neither the way Zaira’s eyes glinted playfully at that moment, leaving very little room for doubt about the woman’s interest towards him. However, even if under other circumstances corresponding the woman’s advances would have entered the realms of possibility, the first person that came to V’s mind when hearing the prediction was the last he could have expected.

“Oh, there you are.”

V’s heart positively stopped for a moment when hearing Nero’s voice too close, just to beat again (faster than before) when feeling a brusque pat on his shoulders.

“Okay, let’s go before a new group of kids find out about my super aim”, Nero looked at Zaira then, “good luck with your fortune telling, doc.”

V guessed he had imagined Nero’s light rude tone when it was evident those two got along.

“Have fun”, the woman said with a cheery tone, dedicating a last glance towards V while this one stood up from the chair.

“So, you’re going to have a bright future?”

V looked at Nero, finding this one’s gaze more intense than usual, although since he was still shocked by his incomprehensible thought perhaps he was simply overseeing things.

“You know how predictions are: you can never be sure about their meaning”, he answered ambiguously, signaling with his eyes at the small cat [ plushie ](https://youtu.be/A0jko6UlCVA?t=21) that Nero was carrying in his hands, “what is that?”

“Oh, this?”, Nero said shaking it a little, “after getting the tricycle for those girls I still had a couple of shots, so I aimed for this. It was the cutests around.”

V nodded, tempted to make an ironic comment when learning that Nero had a range to catalog cuteness. Before he could bring himself to tease the boy, his eyes opened slightly more when Nero brusquely offered it to him. He looked at the toy for some seconds before looking at Nero without understanding, making this one change his weight from one leg to the other.

“What? It suits you more than me. You know, for the whole dark magician stuff.”

Before V could even think about rejecting it, Nero practically dug the plushie against his chest and began walking towards another stall. The boy hurried him to follow by saying that there was a raffle happening soon, and V couldn’t push back a small grin when noticing that the tip of the devil hunter’s ears were almost as red as the pirate scarf that he had been wearing before.

* * *

Nero was forced to make a short visit to the inn in order to leave all the things that he had managed to get in all the games he participated. In fact, the staff of the activities had begun to spread the word of a young pirate with a prosthetic arm able to get the most impossible prizes, meaning that the people of the booths usually raised the level of difficulty of the games when seeing him appear, which just spurred Nero on to participate, and also V when he purposely said the invoker was just afraid to lose.

While leaving the bags scattered on his bed together with his gained eye-patch, Nero couldn’t help to smile when remembering V getting frustrated when he got a higher score than him in the fishing catch booth, just to lose miserably all the plays of the tic-tac-toe one after V chose that activity as ‘revenge’. Nero also left the cat plushie on the table situated between the two beds. Honestly, giving V the toy had been something completely impulsive, and although after doing it he had feared that the man deservedly mocked him, he was barely able to contain the laugher when catching occasional glimpses of the invoker checking the toy was safely stored inside his pocket when he thought no one was watching. 

He was still smiling when he left the inn towards the festival once again. They still had a couple of hours until the sun finally set so he came back quickly to make the most of the remaining day, since he doubted they would have time to relax after they resumed their journey and he would like to kick the invoker’s ass in some more games.

When reaching the place where he last saw V, he frowned when not seeing the invoker, although almost immediately some kind of ruckus happening down in the beach caught his attention. He leaned over the seafront railing and saw a relatively big crowd forming a circle around two people: one of them was an university student dressing in clothes two-sizes too small and with a clear excess of testosterone, while the other was no one else than V, who was looking at the man with his arms crossed and a serious expression that should have warned the other man about stopping with whatever he was doing.

After recovering from his stupor, Nero also went down to the beach level, beginning to break his way through the crowd to reach V and the asshole, as he internally called him after hearing him talk next. 

“What the fuck do you think you are, his mother?”, the slightly intoxicated student was saying while signaling a teenager who was sitting on the sand while grabbing his arm with a grimace, fighting not to cry as his friends consoled him, “if he’s too weak to play this game he shouldn’t have done it.”

“And I repeat that, weak or not, the rules of this game stipulate, and I quote: ‘ _to shove or push your opponent out of the circle_ ’. Which means that punching or kicking is not acceptable, and therefore _you_ are the one who should leave.”

As the jerk laughed, Nero could hear other people saying something along the lines of ‘ _There has to be an idiot in all places_ ’, though the only one who was facing the so called idiot was V. After some seconds he finally got to the first line, ending in front of V. He was about to approach with the clear intention of having a couple of words with the asshole when he saw V looking at him and shaking his head imperceptibly. Nero understood the gesture as a silent ‘I got this’, so after exhaling a sigh he remained still, keeping in alert in case it was necessary to intervene, though by basing on V’s determined expression he doubted it was.

“Alright, this is what we’ll do”, V said, smoothly interrupting the tourist verborrhea, “if you manage to push me out of the ring, you can keep with your pathetic alpha male show, though I doubt someone is in the mood of joining you in it”, for the face the tourist was making it was evident the man hadn’t understood half of the words V had said, “but if I win, you will apologize to that boy and will leave the festival at this very instant.”

Nero couldn’t help to tense when remembering that V had been forced to use that same method in order to convince him to initiate the journey. However, he hadn’t time to feel embarrassed about his past self, since while V talked the people around had already fixed the sand circle around them. The mediator of the game had barely reminded that a player lost if any portion of them touched or passed outside the circle when, without waiting for the ‘game’ to actually begin, the asshole threw a punch aimed at V’s face.

The invoker managed to avoid it but just barely as the people, Nero included, protested against the tourist cheating again. V didn’t say anything though, limiting himself to avoid the man’s heavy but inefficient attacks by simply moving his body without apparent effort. 

When V was a mere step from ending out of the circle Nero was about to shoot to warn him, but the invoker surprised not only the asshole but also the entire audience by rapidly situating behind the man to deliver a rotatory [ kick ](https://youtu.be/n9-dHGHEve0?t=110) that Nero had _never_ seen V use against the man’s legs, making this one lose his foot and fall heavily out of the circle with a dumbfounded expression.

A silence fell next, during which V simply reached back to fix his ponytail while condescendingly staring at the student from above. V then signaled at the boy who had been hurt with his eyes before staring back at the loser, not needing to spell a single word to make the guy mutter a light trembling ‘sorry’ before disappearing fast as lightning down the beach. 

That seemed to be the indication so that everyone began to applaud loudly and approach V to say thanks for ‘taking care of that idiot’, but the invoker ignored all the praises in order to join Nero, who was looking at him without realizing his mouth was hanging slack. 

Because when seeing V’s incredibly short but impressive fight and how V had looked after it, the words ‘hot tattooed gothic’ that Zaira had said the other day popped up in his head. 

He realized then that he had internally called V hot, and the thought caught him off guard because up till then it hadn’t even crossed his mind to apply that adjective to V. However, now that he thought about it, someone had to be _really_ blind not to notice V’s attractiveness, surely given by those strongly-marked features that managed to combine in a way that made absolutely impossible not to stare at the man without thinking an internal ‘ _wow_ ’. 

Or at least, _that_ was what Nero found himself thinking for the first time since meeting the invoker, which made his heart skip a beat when suddenly realizing V had got close while he admired the man’s beauty. And damn, the mere thought embarrassed him, but there wasn’t other way to express it.

“Let’s go.”

When hearing V’s impatient tone Nero shook his head to focus again and followed the invoker towards the area in which the last show of the festival was about to start, signaling the end of the daylight activities, although there still remained some more hours of music and dance for the ones who wanted to extend the party until late night.

“When did you plan to tell me that you could do body combat?”

V offered him a cryptic smile.

“When did I say I could _not_ do it?”

Nero snorted, shaking his head while deciding to accept V’s not-valid argument.

“Well, just so you know, that kick was powerful but slow as fuck. I really doubt it would have worked against me.”

V raised his chin a little in an arrogant expression that, for the first time, didn’t bother Nero as much as it should.

“When I beat you in the next battle, I will remind you your own words.”

Nero smirked in provokation.

“I hope that battle isn’t too soon so that you have time to train for it. I wouldn’t like to kick your ass too easily.”

V half-closed his eyes, which now were shining for the challenge, but the tension that was surrounding them was quite different from the one that used to fall between them. Now it had a tinge of... _something_ that Nero was unable to put into words, but that provoked a thrilling sensation in his body that wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. 

At that moment they reached the small area installed under the seafront, composed of tiered benches facing the sea. By when they arrived most part of the seats were occupied. Nero was about to remain standing or sit on the sand like most part of the people when he managed to hear loud, high-pitched cries of ‘ _Plushie Pirate_!’ coming from a point in the middle of the benches. Nero pinpointed the children he had helped waving their hands towards him while signaling an empty spot they had managed to make for V and him.

“So Plushie Pirate”, it was his turn to half-close his eyes at V when hearing his teasing words, “you have been promoted from Cabin Boy at least.”

Nero snorted, signaling with his head towards the children. 

“Whatever, but I managed to get us two seats.”

With a little of difficulty they managed to reach the bench when the show was beginning. Children were the participants of the first performance, consisting of a theatre play about a fisherman that became friends with a small fish that he caught, and who taught him about the proper way of fishing not to damage the marine wildlife unnecessarily. After that though, different kind of dances followed, all of them with the intention to celebrate the fishing year as Zaira explained him the previous day.

Speaking of whom, in the middle of the show Nero noticed that the woman was among the dancers waiting to carry out their performances. He saw her clearly looking for someone in the benches, her face illuminating when seeing them. He waved his hand back when she did it towards their direction, even if he was pretty sure the gesture was more intended to V than him. 

His suspicious were confirmed soon, when a new song began through the speakers situated on either side of the tiered benches and Zaira and her partner got into position to [ dance ](https://youtu.be/4MCjU-Du3eI?list=RDGMEMQ1dJ7wXfLlqCjwV0xfSNbAVM4MCjU-Du3eI&t=19). Their perfect coordination and fluency while dancing proved that the woman hadn’t lied before when saying that dancing was her second passion, and Nero couldn’t help to stare in awe at how the dancers managed to make each movement look easy and natural when they were obviously complicated to do, impossible for someone who hadn’t been practicing for years. 

At some point of the song Zaira’s partner [ pressed ](https://youtu.be/4MCjU-Du3eI?list=RDGMEMQ1dJ7wXfLlqCjwV0xfSNbAVM4MCjU-Du3eI&t=59) her against him in a brusque gesture that arose some murmurs on the seatings. However, Nero noticed that despite the intimate way the dancer caressed Zaira’s cheek after the passionate action, the woman’s eyes were still on V, and they kept being until he intensity of the music grew again and the woman was forced to keep her focus on her dancing partner.

She continued stealing glances on the invoker whenever the performance allowed her, and Nero couldn’t help to shift a little uncomfortable on his seat when out of the corner of his eye he noticed that V’s eyes were following the woman’s movements.

He told himself that probably the invoker was simply observing the general performance, not looking specifically at Zaira, and somehow that thought made him feel slightly better. 

* * *

By when the show finished the sun had already set and all the people had gathered next to the benches. The music had gone quiet after the last dancers performed, although V doubted it could be heard with how loud people were talking. 

Nero was a little busy dealing with the mobile of one of the children, since they had insisted of taking a picture with the ‘cool pirate that had got them the toy’, when he pinpointed a familiar teenager talking animatedly with another boy. V didn’t make the least attempt of approaching, but eventually his gaze met Finn’s, whose face illuminated in recognition and immediately decided to approach, dragging his friend behind. 

“Hey there!”, the young sailor signaled next at his friend while hooking an arm around the other boy’s shoulder, “V, this is Tom. Tom, this is V, the guy who helped me a little with the poem.”

V considered he had helped quite more than ‘a little’, but decided to let such an inaccuracy pass not to leave Finn too bad in front of his ‘friend’. In no time Finn was rambling about the festival and asking V about what he had done, and V was about to find an excuse to say goodbye to the excessively amicable boy when he tensed, realizing that Mr. Jenkins was also approaching. 

“You can tell him if he bothers you”, the man surprised V by saying when stopping in front of him, throwing Finn a reproachful though fond look, “fish will fly before this boy learns to hold back his tongue.”

Finn exhaled an embarrassed laugh that developed into a protesting ‘Hey’ when Tom nodded in agreement, just to smile a little idiotically when his ‘friend’ took his hand to bring him back to the improvised dancefloor, where the people were waiting for the music to sound again.

“So, you are completely recovered?”

V nodded, still in alert since he remembered the man’s (maybe justified) animosity towards him. Initially he was going to leave it at that, but he decided he owed the man to mention certain topic.

“We were told you went to rescue us even if sailing the waters was a risk”, he realized then that thanking other people was not as easy as doing it with Nero, but he managed to push through his reticence and talk, “you didn’t have to, so I appreciate it.”

Mr. Jenkins looked at him in silence for a moment before nodding.

“I misjudged you”, V’s eyes opened more for a moment, not expecting the man’s straight acknowledgement, “when we first met, I thought you were a cretin that didn’t care about anything but himself”, the man’s eyes diverted towards a point behind V, “but now I know I was wrong.”

V frowned, following the man’s eyes and tensing when seeing Nero there, laughing with the children after he, finally, managed to activate well the camera of the mobile to take a selfie with them.

“And what did exactly make you change your mind?”

V immediately regretted sounding so defensive, and even more that Mr. Jenkins had noticed by basing on the knowing smile that appeared in his face.

“When we took you to the boat you were delirious. And among all the things you said, that boy’s name was among them”, Mr. Jenkin’s smile became more affable, “you were in a terrible shape, but your main worry was your friend’s life. A cretin would never do that.”

V was still with his mouth half-opened in disbelief when Nero suddenly approached, startling him with his presence for second time that day.

“Hey, Ronald! Nice to see you!”

Mr. Jenkins didn’t look bothered at all by being called by his first name, and while Nero and the man talked V was still thinking about what the old sailor had told him. He was considering the option of trying to get separate rooms, not wanting to risk doing something as stupid as calling Nero’s name in dreams and that the boy heard it, when suddenly a loud animated [ song ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9elRrE8sA) invaded the place and all the people cheered loudly, beginning to dance enthusiastically at the rhythm of it.

“Oh, that’s the village traditional song!”, if V thought that Mr. Jenkins couldn’t surprise him more he was mistaken, since the man suddenly grabbed his right wrist and Nero’s left one and forced them be face to face, pressing their hands together, “come on, you cannot be in Pitchbale festival and not dance this song.”

Not happy with making them hold hands, the man went that far to push them both towards the dance floor making them be about to lose balance. Once surrounded by all the dancing people, V felt the awkwardness settling within, and also in Nero for the way the boy didn’t know where to look. However, it was a little too late to remedy what Mr. Jenkins had caused, since surely abandoning the dancefloor would mean an even more awkward withdrawal. 

So, V did the only thing that could be done at the moment: he grabbed Nero’s mechanical arm, placed it over his shoulder, and then settled his own left hand on the boy’s hip, all that while Nero simply stared at him dumbfounded.

“You have heard Mr. Jenkins”, V said, using irony to hide he was actually feeling a little nervous about the whole thing, “we would be insulting Pitchbale tradition if we refuse to dance.”

Nero blinked, astonished, but almost immediately an incredulous laugh escaped him.

“You have a point there.”

He tried to move but V didn’t let him, causing the boy to frown.

“Have you done this before?”, Nero’s caught-red-handed expression was all he needed to know, “then I’m afraid you will have to follow.”

Without giving Nero time to protest, V began to move when the [ song ](https://youtu.be/ev9elRrE8sA?t=44) required them to give some coordinated steps back and forth that, obviously, weren’t coordinated at all. Fortunately, it seemed that Nero’s speed of learning didn’t limit to the battlefield and the devil hunter managed to get a hold of it by observing the other people around them without stomping on him even once. At some point though Nero seemed to get tired of simply following and surprised V by suddenly spinning him around when the rhythm of the song [ changed ](https://youtu.be/ev9elRrE8sA?t=73) again and guitar chords marked the tempo, the sudden movement making V end closer to Nero than he was before.

“I told you I was leading”, V reprimanded, making Nero smirk cockily.

“No, you said _I_ had to follow, but I never agreed.”

V tried to protest but Nero managed to make him spin again. From then on the dance became a competition of taking turns in leading and letting lead, but considering that everyone was dancing on their own without following any rules, V decided that they had done it quite decently. Besides, he had made Nero turn three times when the boy just managed two, so overall he felt he had won. 

“Not half bad”, Nero said with a proud smile when the song finished, making V show an amused one.

“It could have certainly been worse.”

He was about to finally separate from Nero when the a new song began to sound. A song that wasn’t excessively slow, but that was [ melancholic ](https://youtu.be/MOJ91H4mraU) enough so that all the people surrounding them grew quieter, beginning to dance while hugging tight.

While feeling the previous tension coming back even stronger than before, V tried to release Nero to abandon the dancefloor, since obviously the current mood involving the place had nothing to do with them.

This time, the devil hunter was the one who made the choice of not releasing him.

V looked at Nero with confusion. This one looked almost as perplexed as him, as if the boy wasn’t even sure why he wasn’t letting him go, and when he finally talked his tone sounded casual but a little forced.

“You have led before, so it’s my turn now.”

V could have said several things at that moment: 

That Nero’s statement was a lie, since the boy had refused to follow his lead during the previous song; that there was no point in keeping dancing, since they had already done their part by honoring the song that cannot _not_ be danced in the festival; or, simply, that there was no reason for them to be dancing like that in the first place. 

V knew all that. Or, at least, his brain did. 

And for that reason, he was the first surprised when his body answered on his own, by placing both of his hands on Nero’s shoulders without saying a word, sustaining the boy’s gaze as the boy’s hands slid down his sides to land on his hips. 

During the first seconds none of them said anything, simply moving slowly with the rhythm of the music, but at some point the quite weird situation seemed to sink into Nero, making the boy snort a laugh, effectively reducing the tension between them.

“Can you share what you find so funny?”, V inquired, causing Nero to let out a deep breath before shaking his head.

“Nothing”, V tilted his head a little to the side, silently indicating such an answer wasn’t valid, “I just remembered the first day we worked together.”

V huffed softly, but the hint of a smirk returned to his face when talking next.

“Yes, our collaboration did not have the brightest start.”

“Nope. But I think we have improved since then.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t usually dance with someone I hate.”

“By basing on your dancing abilities I doubt you dance with anyone on a common basis.”

“Says the man who doesn’t even know how to lead.”.

“Excuse me but I perfectly know how: it is not my fault that my dancing partner refused to follow.”

“Bah, it was funnier the other way.”

V rolled his eyes so exaggeratedly that Nero chuckled. 

Silence fell between them again, this time more comfortable than the previous one, and V was just thinking that it was a luck that his familiars had to be hidden not to stand Griffon’s surely annoying comments when he witnessed the weird sight of Nero getting lost in his thoughts.

“Yes, Nero?”

The boy snorted when hearing the obliging, ironic tone he had used on purpose, after noticing Nero was debating himself between asking something or not.

“I doubt you want to answer”, Nero said, referring to the question he hadn’t even asked yet, and for the first time Nero’s security that he didn’t want to share anything with him bothered V a little.

“Perhaps you should try”, V said a little impatiently, “after all I am already dancing with you, so who knows what else I could agree to do tonight.”

V didn’t notice the probable second meaning of his own words until letting them out. He thanked once again that his familiars weren’t present, and also that Nero was struggling with whatever thing he planned to ask to notice his unfortunate words.

“What do you plan to do?”, Nero said after some seconds, fixing his eyes in V’s with interest, “after we defeat Urizen, I mean.”

V stopped moving, his heart beating hard against his chest.

Among all the questions V could have expected from Nero at that moment, that one had clearly fallen out his estimations. In fact, now that he realized, Nero’s questions never used to be what he was expecting them to, so maybe he should simply consider to stop indulging the boy in making questions once and for all.

V’s eyes fixed in Nero without actually seeing him because, for the first time, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer, but that he didn’t know _how_.

The only thing he knew was that if he wanted to have any chance to survive on the long term, he had to defeat Urizen. But what happened after that, it was a mystery even for him. 

“Why do you ask?”

He was aware he was answering a question with another one. However, Nero seemed to detect that, for once, he wasn’t purposely avoiding to answer, and simply continued.

“I was just thinking that we actually work good together”, Nero tried to hide a gulp but at that distance V noticed it, “and that maybe, if you don’t have other plans, we could keep doing it. You could even stay.”

V frowned.

“Stay?”

Nero nodded.

“Yes. With me. And the guys.”

Nero rapidly rectified to include the people of Devil May Cry in the mix, but still that first part of the sentence made V's chest swell with a feeling that, he knew, shouldn’t allow himself to experience: hope. Expectation for the possibility of having a place to belong, after so much time of endlessly pursuing something he wasn’t sure he needed to seek anymore.

“You really mean that.”

It was more an incredulous statement than a question, but Nero took it as the second.

“Yeah, I do.”

V stared at Nero's serious expression in mute astonishment, his hands unconsciously sliding down Nero’s shoulders towards the front of his cotton t-shirt until they were softly leaning against the boy’s chest. Suddenly the music felt too far away, and in the back of his mind he noticed that Nero’s pulse was racing, probably as much as his own was.

That was the second time that day he felt that his body wanted to do something that his mind would never approve. 

He felt it in the the way his hands wanted to roam over the expanse of Nero’s displayed skin; in the way his eyes lingered from Nero’s gaze to his lips and back to his eyes, finding the last shining with the same contained anticipation; in the way his face was leaning forward little by little, while Nero remained still with his eyes half-closing and without making the least attempt to push back.

 

“Nero?”

 

It was curious how such a sweet voice was all it took to violently shatter the moment they were sharing.

V didn’t recognize her owner, and from his position he was unable to see the woman who, right now, he wanted to demand to take her leave. However, for the way Nero’s eyes opened wide in stupor it was evident he knew who she was.

After gulping, Nero looked behind him, his whole body in tension.

And then, V’s blood ran cold when hearing the name that left Nero’s lips.

 

“Kyrie?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Please, don't hate me ^^U


	14. (May 29) - He couldn't do it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been listening to [this song](https://youtu.be/q33Yvs66rCI?list=RDKfxo6y3fXjA&t=7) almost in loop while writing the chapter. I think it’s specially suitable for the first part of the chapter with V’s POV, in case someone wants to listen to it :)  
> Having said that, I hope you ‘enjoy’ the chapter ^^U

**_May 29 -  9:37 p.m._ **

“Kyrie?”

V hadn’t noticed the warmth Nero’s hands provided, but he was definitely aware of the emptiness that replaced it when Nero removed them from his hips to turn around brusquely to face the newcomer. V’s hands remained in the air in the place Nero’s chest had been a second ago, in a ridiculous pose that V proceeded to dissolve by crossing his arms in an unconscious defensive posture. 

“What are you doing here—?”

Nero didn’t get to finish his astonished comment, since at that moment Kyrie approached him, enclosed her arms around his neck and kissed him intensely, causing the boy to exhale a surprised sound before his eyes fluttered automatically close.

V observed such a thing happening as if it was in slow motion, his mind trying to understand the emotions flooding inside him.

As a result of being Vergil’s human half, the previous experiences of the older son of Sparda that had been passed to V, those memories of a life he had never come to live in that body, had been a big help in several situations. It had allowed V to know how to act, how to behave despite having been awakened in that form less than a month ago. Such as when he was able to come up with the best tactics to defeat the demons they came across; or when he had the knowledge about how to open the Mirror Dimension in Mallet despite never being physically there; or when that same night he had put an end to that fool’s pathetic boasting by using a fighting technique that wasn’t the most suitable for his current body, but that still had come in handy.

But while observing Nero and Kyrie together, the oppressive feeling pressing in his chest was completely unknown. New. _Painful_. And when Nero’s arms passed to surround around Kyrie, in a more intimate way than when they had been dancing before, the disgusting sensation increased, traversing down his body until curling around his stomach like a venomous tendril.

V felt his own nails digging on his skin, his teeth gritting when Nero finally responded to the woman’s affections, tilting his head to return the kiss he was receiving. Probably Nero wasn’t aware due to his lack of experience in the topic, but the way that woman, his... _fiancée_ was behaving, that relief and desperation palpable in the way she held him close, revealed a need of proximity, of intimacy, that would surely result in those two taking their relationship to the next level that night.

The invoker didn’t know why such an outcome made him feel the irrational need of invoking his familiars to _destroy_ the damn dancefloor right then and there, to put an end to the scene in front of him, and to the generalized enthusiasm surrounding the place that certainly he didn’t share anymore.

“Morrison told me you were in Pitchbale”, Kyrie began to say with a trembling tone when she, _finally_ , separated from Nero, settling her hands against the boy’s chest in a way that was horribly similar to how V had touched Nero before, “that you had gone through some trouble. And then I remembered that the news said that an accident happened in an island and I knew it had to be you.”

“But I also told Morrison we were okay”, Nero said, frowning with confusion, “you didn’t need to come all this way just to—”

“Just to what? To check that you weren’t pretending to be better than you actually were, as you usually do?”, Kyrie exhaled a stuttering sigh, her eyes watering as her voice trembled even more, “I know you told me to be safe, that you didn’t want to get me involved so that I wasn’t in danger, but I...I needed to know you were _fine_ , Nero. I needed to be sure that you were because the news said you were found barely alive and—”

Nero interrupted Kyrie’s more and more babbling speech by hugging her tightly against his chest, and V had to look away when perfectly feeling the tenderness in the gesture, missing the way Nero reassured the woman next because his efforts were devoted to stop his tattoos from vanishing.

He had to get out of there before doing something he would surely regret.

V was beginning to walk to abandon the dancefloor when his arm was touched in a soft way that still felt like a punch in his gut, especially when seeing from whom the gesture came from.

“H-Hi”, his inner tumult must have shown in his expression when looking at the woman because this one stuttered, rapidly removing her hand from his arm, “I simply wanted to say thank you. I was told in the hospital that you really helped Nero so thank you very much for keeping your promise.”

V knew that there was no justifiable reason to feel the wave of hate that assaulted him when Kyrie talked to him, especially because the woman had done something completely natural: to thank him for having helped her boyfriend. But nevertheless he had to gather all his self-control to push aside all the unnecessary thoughts involving him making that woman disappear off the face of the earth.

“Well, your fiancé would not have fulfilled very well his purpose in case of being dead.”

His usual smooth, only slightly strained tone contrasted with the coldness of his words. His eyes kept being focused on Kyrie when answering, noticing the way the woman blinked a couple of times clearly at a loss about what to say, but V could also see out of the corner of his eyes the stunned expression that passed by Nero’s features when hearing his answer. It was probably childish, but V couldn’t help to hope that Nero was feeling at least half of the confused he was at the moment. 

After a tense silence, Kyrie exhaled an awkward chuckle and wisely decided to swift her attention towards Nero again, who was still looking at V, perplexed.

“The innkeeper has been super sweet and after explaining the situation she has managed to arrange a room for us.”

Nero seemed to realize then that Kyrie was talking to him at that moment.

“Oh. Great”

Nero’s tone came a little absent-minded more than enthusiastic, but that didn’t remove Kyrie’s soft smile from her face.

“I will tell her to move your things there then. We are in room 202. See you soon.”

V was thinking by passing that they would be staying in the same room that had been assigned to Nero and him before the boy decided to change it when Kyrie kissed Nero again, more calmly now. After that she offered a light hesitant smile to V and she left the dancefloor in the direction of the inn, leaving them alone. 

For second time in an interval of two minutes, V wished to have abandoned the place when a heavy, thick tension fell between Nero and him.

Never before V had had so much trouble in meeting someone’s else gaze, and by basing on Nero’s stiff posture it seemed that it was the same for the boy. However, as much as V would have preferred to simply leave without having to cross any words with Nero, he felt that abandoning the place without talking would surely make the boy’s innerly curious nature to ask questions, so doing that wasn’t a valid option.

With a resolution he actually hadn’t V looked at Nero, finding this one with a clueless expression that surely had something to do with his previous comment. V kept silent for some seconds, as if giving Nero an opportunity to say something that maybe showed that his previous suggestion hadn’t been made in an impulse. That he hadn’t been an utter fool by believing, even for an instant, that he could lean on someone else that wasn’t himself after carrying out their mission.

But when seeing that Nero was having even more difficulties than him to make a decision about how to behave next, V decided to put an end to that ridiculous situation surrounding them both.

“I will see you tomorrow.”

V knew he should have been able to say that simple sentence with a normal tone of voice, but not wanting to risk that the bitterness he was feeling showed in his voice the goodbye came out forced and monotone. He decided not to wait to whatever thing Nero wanted to say, and when seeing the boy opening his mouth to do so he turned around and left, disappearing within the crowd who was dancing more animatedly to the rhythm of the new song.

He was aware that he was walking in the complete opposite direction where the inn was, but the only thing he wanted was to avoid meeting with Nero or that woman for the time being. To see them and, much less, to _hear_ them.

He was making his way through the sandy dancefloor, avoiding the people who was carefreely and happily dancing, when a familiar figure appeared in front of him, making him jump startled. It was evident that he wasn’t in his best condition: there was no way he would have been surprised in that way under normal circumstances.

“Oh, jeez, sorry”, Zaira said with a chuckle, “I didn’t plan to scare you. Just wanted to say hi.” 

V remembered that that woman had been one of the few people in taking care of him, so he forced himself to answer with a cordial tone. 

“Good to see you, Dr. Dorens. Excellent dancing performance, by the way.”

The last compliment probably prevented that the young doctor protested for not being called by her first name, making her show a content smile.

“Phew! I’m glad our mistakes weren’t so evident”, Zaira bit her lower lip, looking at V with a hoping expression, “I wouldn’t mind to teach you the basics if you want. I bet you are a fast learner.”

V shook his head, rejecting the offer politely.

“I’m sure as well you are a very capable teacher, but I think it is better if I call it a day.”

Zaira showed a confused expression.

“But if you want to come back to the inn, it should be better if you went _that_ way.”

V suppressed the urge of clicking his tongue when, rather reasonably, Zaira signaled behind him.

“I was planning to go for a walk first”, he lied, inclining a little his head, “I hope you enjoy the rest of the night.”

He was going to terminate the conversation by passing the woman when this one stepped on his way. V was beginning to feel annoyance settling for the doctor’s insistent attitude when she talked with a light concerned tone.

“Is everything okay? You look a little pale”, the woman’s tone changed into a professional one, “maybe you are suffering a relapse? We could make a quick stop in the hospital so that I can take a look at you if that’s the case.”

After the general discomfort that had settled in his body due to the arrival of Nero’s fiancée, the fact that that woman was honestly worrying for him felt strangely comforting. 

V was about to assure her that he was fine and that getting some rest was all he needed when the people closer to them bumped into her by accident, causing her to lose balance and fall forward with a soft curse. He automatically grabbed her by her arms to prevent her from falling, as her hands came to grip at his coat, the first thing she saw he could get a hold onto.

She raised her face, V thought that to thank him, and felt her tense in his arms because of their sudden proximity, her breathing catching in her throat as her brown eyes scanned his green ones before lingering towards his lips. 

V gulped, physically feeling the attraction emanating from the woman’s body and expression.

Catching her had been an impulsive action. Leaning down to capture her half-parted lips was one as well.

He felt more than heard the gasp that abandoned the woman’s mouth when he intensified the kiss, while feeling her whole body shivering against him. After an initial moment of hesitation she reacted, joining the by then passionate kiss as her hands enclosed around his waist, pressing him closer to her. Feeling her need for air, V let go her lips to settle his mouth on her exposed neck, grasping it in a way that made her whine softly while one of his hands reached up, tangling in his black strands until his ponytail ended more disheveled.

V was pretty sure that what he was doing was a stupid human way to deal with his current situation. That recurring to physical comfort was a mere temporary way to postpone facing a problem he wasn’t sure how to face, and much less how to solve. A problem that maybe didn’t have any solution. But Vergil had used that technique in the past, whenever he was about to make an unavoidable choice that didn’t entirely convince him, or to forget the consequences of some of his actions that he regretted. 

By doing that, even if it was for some fleeting hours, the older son of Sparda had been able to forget the things that tormented him, and that’s exactly what V was looking for.

Because that night, the last thing V wanted was to be left alone with his thoughts.

* * *

“...and the trip here wasn’t dangerous at all. It’s true that the bus was a little slow and sleeping on it wasn’t very comfortable, but people were very kind and besides Morrison told me to call him in case something happened...Uhm, Nero?”

Kyrie’s last hesitant call made Nero come back to reality. He looked at Kyrie from the [ bed ](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0d/87/85/49/old-house-room.jpg) where he was half lying against the pillows, still dressed with the costume but without the boots while the woman unpacked her things from the small suitcase she had brought. 

He felt guilt assaulting him when realizing that he had just half listened to what Kyrie was telling him, his thoughts unable not to come back to what happened in the beach before:

To what V had said after Kyrie thanked him, with that cold voice that was scarily similar when they were mere strangers.

To how the comfortable mood that had settled between them during the festival had changed into a really uncomfortable one. 

To the expression V had showed when he sincerely offered the invoker the alternative of joining him when everything finished: so open, so relieved, so...vulnerable.

To how the strong connection he had been feeling with the invoker as days passed by had suddenly seemed to disappear.

“Are you sure you are okay?”

Nero was about to insult himself for real when, for second time in a row, he got lost in his thoughts instead of paying attention to Kyrie, who had been travelling for almost a day in an old, shitty bus just to see him.

Damn, he should put his damn priorities in order. Right then it wasn’t the time to worry about V’s behavior. About _his_ own behavior, a part of him thought, his heart skipping a bit when remembering what had crossed his mind before Kyrie appeared. 

“Yeah, just tired I guess.”

Nero smiled at Kyrie, leaning his head against his left hand while keeping the mechanical one over his stomach. His eyes went to the pendant he gave her years ago and that was hanging around her neck, remembering then he wasn’t wearing his.

“Sorry”, Kyrie looked at him without understanding as he gestured towards his neck, “the pendant. It broke when we were rescued and I have to fix it, but it’s in a safe place.”

Kyrie giggled softly, looking at Nero with amusement.

“Thank you for telling me, Nero. I’m so glad the pendant is fine.”

Nero exhaled a laugh when detecting a light irony in her tone, smiling apologetically then.

“I’m also sorry for worrying you. I had no idea the news had said something about us, or I would have called sooner.”

Kyrie smiled softly at him, shaking her head while closing her suitcase.

“You had enough with recovering”, she left the suitcase on the floor and next to the bed, “the festival looked really funny. Did you get this there?”

Nero suppressed a gulp when Kyrie grabbed the cat toy from the room chair and shook it softly showing it to Nero.

“Yeah. Although that’s V’s”, he didn’t find necessary to give the detail that _he_ had been the one in giving it to the invoker as a present. 

“Oh”, Kyrie covered her mouth with her hand briefly, “I assumed it was yours. Maybe we should return it to him.”

Nero had the feeling that it was probably better to do so as soon as possible. He really doubted that V was the kind of person who reacted well when people touched his things, and although the other day V hadn’t been bothered when he took his poetry book, at the time the situation between them wasn’t as tense as it seemed to be then, so Nero didn’t want to worsen it even more. 

“I’ll do it”, Nero stepped down the bed and took the toy from Kyrie’s hands, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Nero was surprised when, after nodding, Kyrie began to remove her [ sweater ](https://i.etsystatic.com/5609612/r/il/cc6b59/1123775003/il_fullxfull.1123775003_sm4r.jpg) when he was still in the room. Normally she waited until he was out of view, since she was rather shy so Nero hadn’t even seen her naked yet, but maybe she was distracted and hadn’t even noticed that fact.

He closed the door behind him and walked towards the room 208, the one who he had shared with V the previous night. He couldn’t help to feel nervous as he approached, wondering if V would be in the room already and if, in that case, if it would be clever to try to guess what was wrong with him. He eventually decided it was probably better that the man was already asleep to talk with calm the next morning, but he would discover it soon anyway.

When turning the corner of the narrow corridor he noticed light was slipping under the door of V’s room. He took a deep breath, getting ready to deal with the invoker in his usual shell mode. 

He was raising his arm to knock at the door when a muffled groan that clearly belonged to V came from the inside.

Nero frowned, thinking for a moment that maybe V had been feeling worse than he had let it show and that maybe _that_ was the reason of his previous discomfort. He cursed softly, deciding to enter the room without announcing himself not to give V any time to think about any stupid excuses.

However, when he had barely opened a cranny of the door V groaned again, and this time Nero froze in place, realizing that the noises leaving V’s mouth weren’t from pain or product of a nightmare.

He felt his heart begin to beat faster against his chest, his hand on the doorknob while hesitating about what to do even if at that point it was too late to remedy it.

 _No, it wasn’t_ , a small voice told Nero.

He had perfectly time to leave, since it was a little evident what was happening inside. 

No one was forcing him to open the door a little more, carefully not to make any noise, or to take a peek inside. 

And much less to stare with his breath held what was happening in the bed situated exactly in front of the door. 

But there he was, eye-wided and unable to move one inch while observing V’s back hunched forward on full display, his tattoos cascading down until getting lost in the loosened trousers dangling too low his lower back, making the start of his cleft visible as the invoker moved back and forth in a steady thrusting motion.

Obviously, he wasn’t alone.

Feminine, flexed legs were surrounding V’s frame, pressed against the invoker’s sides, the darker skin of the woman contrasting nicely with the white covers and the invoker’s own pale skin. The position didn’t allow him to see the woman clearly, but when a soft whine sounded in the room and two arms covered in handmade, tribal bracelets enclosed around V, searching for purchase, the identity of the person in the receiving end of V’s attentions was evident.

After some seconds Zaira moaned V’s name after the invoker increased the roughness of their passionate grinding. V bended more at that moment, the muffled moans that followed telling Nero that V was now kissing the woman, and when one of Zaira’s hands began to travel down and settled in the hem of the invoker’s trousers, her intention of lowering them evident, Nero finally snapped off his trance and disappeared down the corridor towards the room he was sharing with Kyrie.

He didn’t enter though, remaining outside with his back against the wall. His heart was hammering in his chest and his cheeks and ears were burning as embarrassment and another feeling he could not put a name to spread inside him.

Nero let out a deep breath, hit the wall with the back of his head, and cursed.

Definitely, he should have fucking knocked.

* * *

V put an end to the current kiss he was sharing with Zaira to look behind him, causing the woman’s hands to stop her exploration under his pants. 

“What?”, Zaira inquired with a breathless tone, looking at V with confusion when he stepped down the bed, barefoot and naked from waist up though still conserving his pendant and accessories on, his ponytail long loosened. 

He approached the door and frowned when seeing it a little opened. 

“Wait, wasn’t it closed?”, Zaira asked behind him, as he proceeded to do so.

“It seems it wasn’t.”

Which was rather weird, since he had the memory of closing it by pressing Zaira against it before further carrying their activities to the bed. Perhaps the door was simply old and had opened on his own, because in case of someone having tried to enter it could only have been Nero, and considering the boy wasn’t precisely discreet they would have surely noticed his presence.

V’s jaw clenched for a moment when thinking about the boy, which inevitably made him recall the events of that night. He held back an annoyed sigh. He had been doing so well until then, but the boy managed to sneak in his thoughts despite all his attempts of preventing such a thing from happening. 

It was frustrating.

“To the voyeur at the other side, leave us alone!”

His more opened eyes diverted towards Zaira when she said that in a loud tone before shrugging, readjusting her half-unbuttoned blouse that was now showing part of her underwear.

“What? It was a friendly warning”, she extended and arm towards V with her palm facing up, “so, do we continue?”

Her seductive tone at the end made V focus again, returning the brief smirk she had in her face. She took her hand and had the intention of crawling over her again when she surprised him by doing that instead, making him lie down facing up to perch her legs on either side of his body. 

V’s hands slid up and down the woman’s thighs, teasingly getting under her long splitted skirt, as she kissed him again for some long seconds. She then began travelling down his chest with a clear goal, depositing soft licks mixed with kisses and bites against his skin along the way.

When Zaira’s mouth stopped under his navel and his hands began to pull down his pants for second time V closed his eyes, trying to let his mind go blank, to focus on the pleasure that that woman was more than capable to provide.

But it was being difficult, and he didn’t understand why. Honestly, at any other moment he wouldn’t have held the least complain about Zaira’s performance, but for some reason it was taking him more to get into it. 

Something was missing. 

Something he _craved_ wasn’t there. 

And at some point he found himself wishing that Zaira’s generally compliant attitude was more competitive; that the curves of her body were less defined; that her soft skin was rougher, tauter; that the high-pitched gasps that occasionally escaped her were lower and more ragged; that she was…

 

“Ner—”

 

V’s eyes snapped opened, realizing too late that he had begun to say the boy’s name aloud when Zaira’s hands stopped in the middle of beginning lowering his underwear.

For the first time, V had to bite his tongue not to curse.

Insulting himself internally non-stop, V straightened his position in bed to be leaning back against his elbows, looking down to see if, by any miraculous chance, Zaira hadn’t noticed his gigantic, completely unfounded slip.

The dumbfounded expression in her face told him that she had obviously noticed it.

“Okaaay”, while V was still struggling to find the proper words, even if he doubted there would be any, Zaira straightened her position to sit back on her legs, crossing her arms in front of her, “well, the mistake is understandable, since ‘Nero’ and ‘Zaira’ are so similar.”

V stared at Zaira without changing his expression, trying to understand what the woman had said when this one exhaled a short embarrassed laugh.

“It was ironic”, she gestured between them with a hand, “to try to break this awful awkwardness, you know? Although I think it’s impossible.”

When understanding that the woman, though obviously disappointed, was trying to fix the impossible to fix situation with humor, an involuntary chuckle escaped V before he changed position in the bed, crossing his left leg under his flexed right one in order to lean his elbow on the last. He pinched the bridge of his nose while exhaling a long, deep breath, innerly wanting to simply forget what had just happened, what he had just said, even if he knew it was unavoidable. Not after he had called someone else’s name, _Nero_ ’s name, with the person he supposedly was going to sleep with.

“Well, it’s been confirmed that I suck at tarot reading and that ‘ _The Lovers_ ’ prediction wasn’t for us.”

V looked at Zaira again when hearing the woman’s comment, finding this one smiling at him with resignation. 

Among all the things that Vergil had difficulties to do, there were three that stood over the rest: to admit when he needed and wanted help, to say thank you, and to apologize. However, after seeing Zaira’s reaction, the words couldn’t _not_ fall easily and sincerely from his lips.

“I’m sorry.”

Still smiling Zaira sighed, placing her hand on his flexed knee for a moment.

“It’s okay. It’s kind of my fault too. Until a moment ago I thought I didn’t mind to play second string”, she exhaled another light frustrated sigh and shrugged her shoulders again, “but I guess I can’t. Not even for the hottest magician of the festival.”

V accepted the woman’s compliment with a shallow smile before averting his eyes to the side, closing them after some seconds when a feeling of extreme fatigue suddenly invaded him. He guessed he had to postpone calling his familiars to let them know about the successful ending of the festival, he thought in self-mockery, because right then the mere thought of invoking them caused him to feel even more drained.

“Oops, I don’t like that face one bit”, Zaira said, crawling next to him again when detecting his change of behavior to place a hand on his forehead, “well, you don’t have a fever but you are warmer than you should so I think you should lie down and sleep.”

V was too tired to even try to complain when Zaira helped him lie on the bed, going as far as rearranging the covers so that V lied under them, entering her doctor mode as if she hadn’t been rejected by him mere minutes ago when he was being the one in initiating things.

“I’ll stay for a while”, the woman commented when V was already having difficulties in keeping his eyes opened, “to make sure that it doesn’t develop into a fever.”

When Zaira looked honestly concerned for him, V couldn’t help to think that if angels existed, and they perhaps did if demons were around, that woman must be surely among them.

“Thank you.”

Zaira smiled when, again, he was able to say those words with practically zero effort. 

“You’re welcome. And hey…”, the seductive tone she used next was different from the one she had being using until then, being mainly playful, “...it was funny while it lasted.”

V offered her the hint of a tired smile.

“It was”, he admitted, continuing talking after an initial moment of hesitation, “do you know what could have caused this?”

“You being suddenly so tired you mean?”

V nodded.

“Do you think it could be the poison? That perhaps it hadn’t disappeared completely from my body?”

When Zaira shook her head no almost immediately, V felt more relieved. 

“I’m positive that the poison was completely gone. And I doubt it’s the result of food intoxication since you would have noticed it sooner and the symptoms would be different.”

V frowned.

“Then, what could the motive be?”

Zaira bit her lower lip, answering with a cautious tone as if he predicted the way V was going to react.

“Emotional pain.”

When hearing the answer, that pressure that V had managed to ignore while being with Zaira came back even more powerful than before, and he decided that he would have greatly preferred that the weakness he was experiencing had been due to the arachnae poison.

V was sure that tiredness would make impossible for him to keep his expression with an acceptable level of imperturbability, so he shifted to one of his sides and closed his eyes, so that Zaira couldn’t see the strain that surely slipped in his face.

“Good night, Dr. Dorens.”

His voice managed to sound composed, but the soft voice she used when wishing him a good night let V know that she had surely detected that the calm he desperately tried to show was only in the outside. 

V took a deep breath when Zaira turned off the lights and lied on the bed in which, theoretically, Nero was going to sleep that night, and at that moment, just before closing his eyes to try that sleep reached him, V decided two things:

First, that he wasn’t in the condition to analyze why Nero doing something as logical as being and sleeping with his fiancée had caused such an effect in him.

And second, that whatever the motive, whatever the reason, it was crystal clear that _that_ was the last time he allowed himself to lower his guard with Nero. 

Vergil had been right all that time, and he had just learned the hard way something that he had always known when that journey began, even if he had been naive enough to ignore it for the sake of allowing himself ‘to act human for once’, as his foolish familiars had encouraged him to do:

That his body was already weak enough as it was, and that the last thing he would allow himself to do was to be weakened by something else, by _someone_ else, who at the moment wasn’t sparing a single thought towards him.

* * *

A couple of minutes had passed since Nero caught V having sex and he hadn’t summoned up the courage of entering his room yet, mainly because he wanted to wait until his heart normalized together with the color of his ears, which he could still feel burning.

He took a deep breath, trying to push the image of V moving _and_ sounding like that in the bed because every time he did that, color returned to his ears again.

Well, Zaira had to be super happy, he couldn’t help to think. After endlessly pursuing the invoker in the festival and the day before in the hospital, she had finally managed to get into his pants, and for the noises they both had been letting out it seemed that they both were enjoying a damn great time together.

Nero froze, the resentment present in his thoughts taking him completely by surprise. 

Okay... 

...where the _hell_ was that thought coming from? 

Unlike him V was single, which meant that the man could do the fuck he wanted, which included to sleep with any woman who decided to bat her eyelashes at him. It wasn’t his damn business, so Nero couldn’t understand why the fact that the invoker was with someone actually bothered him. 

And damn it, he better understand it by when he opened that door because Kyrie had always been able to read him quite easily. Or well, better said: he had always sucked at hiding his true feelings. Actually, he had never bothered himself to hide them before. He had never _needed_ to do it, but for some reason the last thing he wanted at the moment was that Kyrie asked something that forced him to explain what he had just seen, and why he was feeling so bugged by it.

Although wait, maybe the explanation to his discomfort was easier than he thought. Maybe the answer wasn’t that complicated…

Yes, it had to be _that_ : the reason why he felt so annoyed by the invoker’s attitude was that he had been worrying for nothing. 

He had been wasting time thinking about how V was doing, about what could be wrong with him, worrying when thinking that the man maybe was in pain, just to discover that V had been getting laid in the meantime without a damn worry in the world. Damn, that was the reason for it.

It _had_ to be. 

Nero insulted himself internally, rubbing his face with both hands with force before letting out all the air. Damn, he was _really_ stupid, overthinking things like that when the thing that should matter the most at the moment was that he had Kyrie waiting, and probably wondering where he was because it had taken him a lot to return a toy that, by the way, was still in his hand. 

But well, now that he knew the reason of his annoyance towards V he wouldn’t have the least problem to speak to Kyrie about it.

With a little more emphasis than usual, Nero opened the door of the room, resolved not to waste more time in beating himself about things that he shouldn’t overthink.

“Hey, it’s me. Sorry for the wait—”

Nero shut up when he was in the process of closing the door, after seeing Kyrie sitting on the bed waiting for him, leaning back against her hands.

That wasn’t strange per se.

What was definitely strange was the fact that she was dressed in a [ pajama ](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/611g%2BAfRusL._AC_UY1000_.jpg) that, though still pretty normal, was way more revealing than the clothes she used to wear. 

“Uhm...is something wrong?”

Nero realized he had been staring when hearing Kyrie’s hesitant question. He looked at her, realizing she was blushing rather intensely, so he shook his head while exhaling a short laugh, finally closing the door behind him.

“No, nothing. Just that I hadn’t seen you wear that before.”

Kyrie blushed even more and talked again, beginning to play with a long curl of his red hair. Nero frowned a little confused, not understanding why she looked suddenly so nervous.

“Well, before coming I read that the weather in Pitchbale was warmer than in Red Grave so I bought it. Nico helped me”, she looked at Nero, “do you like it?”

Nero nodded without hesitation.

“Yeah. It looks good on you.”

Kyrie chuckled happily but Nero could still feel she was nervous. He was about to repeat her previous question but addressed to her when she moved further back on the bed until being kneeling on it, extending an arm towards him in a silent invitation so that he joined her. 

Unable to remove the confused frown from his face, Nero left the cat toy on the table of the room and approached the bed, taking Kyrie’s hand to also kneel in front of her. Again, his attempt of asking her was cut when Kyrie’s hands settled in the shirt he was wearing and proceeded to unloose the rest of the buttons. Her brown eyes fixed on his blue ones for a moment before she tilted her head up to initiate a calm kiss. 

Out of habit, Nero closed his eyes while kissing back, while feeling Kyrie’s hands fumble with his clothing until the shirt was completely opened. They were still kissing slowly when Nero rolled back his shoulders to remove the clothing, settling then a hand on her cheek while the other settled on her exposed hip.

Yes, everything was okay, Nero thought as Kyrie’s hands enclosed around his back as their unhurried kissing continued. All those confused feelings from before didn’t matter at the moment. He was fine. Everything was fine.

Everything was how it should be, and he felt as he was supposed to feel for the woman he loved.

When the kiss they were sharing finished and Kyrie let out a sigh, he kissed her forehead and was about to suggest to go to bed. She had to be tired after the long journey after all. However, Kyrie surprised him with a new kiss that, this time, wasn’t unhurried at all but just the contrary: her mouth seeking his desperately, encouraging him to kiss her deeper, and her fingers actually dug in his back in a way that made Nero’s member twitch in interest. 

“Kyrie?”, he couldn’t help to ask, grunting softly in surprise when Kyrie settled her mouth on the side of his neck, tentatively nipping the flesh there, “Kyrie, what—”

“I thought I was going to lose you”, she whispered against him, with fear and something else that Nero had never heard in her voice up till then, “I thought I was going to lose you, Nero.”

Guilt assaulted him again when remembering that he hadn’t called her the moment he woke up, since at that moment he had been more focused on...

...No.

No, he _shouldn’t_ follow that train of thought.

“I’m here, Kyrie”, he said instead, forcing himself to focus on the current situation, on enclosing his arms around Kyrie trembling lightly against him, “I’m here, okay?”

Kyrie sighed against his neck as her hands sneaked between them against Nero’s chest. She then looked at him again, leaning forward until her lips were almost brushing his.

“Show me, Nero.”

Nero felt his heart beat faster, not sure if what Kyrie was suggesting was what he thought she was suggesting. 

“How?”

Kyrie sighed again, beginning to pull back and causing Nero to immediately loosen the embrace. Her hands roamed briefly over his chest before settling on his biceps, moment in which she began to lean back. Nero followed her, catching her mouth again while maneuvering so that she was leaning against the mattress with him between her legs. She then grabbed his face in her hands, raising her head to whisper the next sentence in his ear.

“Make me yours, Nero.”

Before Nero could assimilate what Kyrie was suggesting, she tentatively grinded upwards, making their lower halves connect. Nero wasn’t expecting the small wave of pleasure that assaulted him, which made him exhale a new low grunt when Kyrie enclosed her lips around his earlobe, licking it in a feathery way before looking at him in a way that left little room for doubt.

It was happening.

She was asking him to go all out that night, and damn, he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t waited for it to happen.

With an incredulous curse, he forced her head against the pillow with a hard kiss, causing her to moan and enclose her arms around his back once again.

They kissed again more messily than before. He placed his forearms on either side of Kyrie’s head while beginning to grind down against her with firmer movements, creating a satisfying friction that made him feel his member begin to harden.

“ _Nero…_ ”, Kyrie moaned when it was his turn to attack her neck, her hands beginning to travel down his back until reaching the hem of the pants he was still wearing…

Wait.

That was familiar

And by when Nero realized his mistake, it was too late: Kyrie’s action mixed with the moan that escaped her next and their current position made Nero come back to what he had seen in the room 208. 

It made him come back to V.

To the way the invoker had looked, and sounded.

And without knowing how, Nero discovered himself wondering if V’s face would look as desperate and needy as he had sounded before, the fact that such a thought made his member throb causing him to break his current kiss with Kyrie, separating from her with a frustrated expression.

“Nero?”, Kyrie asked confused when he cursed and sat down on the bed. He flexed his legs to surround them with his mechanical arm while placing his other elbow over it, leaning his forehead on his hand.

“Sorry”, he gulped, opening and closing his mouth without knowing what the hell to say, since he himself didn’t understand what the fuck was happening, “I...I’m sorry.”

Damn.

 _Damn_.

He couldn’t do it.

He _couldn’t_ do it.

What they were about to do was something important. It had to be something _special_ for both of them, but for some fucking reason his damn brain wasn’t allowing him to make it work.

And he felt like shit for it because it was obvious that Kyrie wanted it. But precisely because of it he had to stop. 

He couldn’t do that to Kyrie. 

He couldn’t _do it_ with Kyrie.

Not with that unpleasant feeling spreading in his lower stomach once again. Not when his thoughts weren’t where they were supposed to be. 

Kyrie tilted her head, looking more lost than ever before settling hand in the back of Nero’s head to rub his hair softly as this one closed his eyes and tried to calm his stuttering breathing.

“Nero, is something wrong?”

Nero tried to swallow without success, his throat dry and close for the tension invading him.

Yeah, it was. 

Of course it was when he was with his long life girlfriend, with the opportunity of spending an unforgettable night with her, and his thoughts decided to come back over and over again to what was happening in the neighbor room. 

 

Of course there was something horribly wrong with him thinking about V when he should be thinking about Kyrie.

 

“I don’t know”, he admitted with a ragged tone, his throat hurting for how tight it suddenly felt, self-blame and confusion making him hesitate in the next sentence, “can...can we just sleep?”

Looking at Kyrie had never been so hard, neither to see the hint of worry in her beautiful big eyes, before she nodded with a sweet smile that just looked a little forced.

“Of course, Nero. We can always try again tomorrow.”

When they got under the covers Kyrie immediately curled against his left side so that he could enclose his human arm around her shoulders, no trace of blame in her attitude.

He hugged her back, kissed her forehead and closed his eyes, convincing himself that they still had the next time to recover the chance he had wasted that night, before Kyrie came back to Fortuna.

“I love you, Nero.”

Nero answered back promptly and with resolve, reaffirming that way how he felt about Kyrie while silencing that inner, accusing voice saying that maybe Kyrie’s doubts weren't the ones that needed to be dispelled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, please don’t hate me 🙏
> 
> But as much as part of me wanted to make them kiss already I don’t think it would have been credible that Nero suddenly dumped Kyrie. He still needed to figure it out that even if she is important to him and she will always be, his feelings are already swifting to someone else, and what happens in this chapter clearly helps to make him begin to see that. 
> 
> The meeting in the next morning is going to be glorious for the poor boys -.- But even if there will be more up and downs in their relationship, I promise that the 'friends to lovers' tag of the fic will happen <3 <3


	15. (May 30) - Morning after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An alternative title for this chapter could be 'Heavy Denial', just saying ^^U

**_May 30 - 8:36 a.m._ **

“Pst. _Pssst, V!_ ”

When an unexpected breeze of fresh air hit V directly in the face, he frowned and opened his eyes.

He was slightly startled when seeing Griffon posed on the bed and flapping his wings in front of him, the bird being the culprit of his brusque wake up. Exhaling an annoyed sigh V sat on the bed, closing his eyes again to pinch the bridge of his nose in an useless attempt to alleviate the headache he was suffering. 

“Yes, Griffon?”, V managed to talk with a patient tone, deciding that the day promised to be rather complicated and that he couldn’t allow himself to lose his nerve so early in the morning, even if his familiar probably deserved it and not _just_ for having interrupted his sleep. 

Despite his intention of not letting his resentment show, Griffon seemed to detect it nevertheless, because there was a hint of hesitation in his tone when talking next. 

“Uhm...there is a woman in the kid’s bed.”

V gritted his teeth, opening his closed eyes again. He averted his eyes briefly towards Nero’s bed, where Zaira was sound asleep while giving her back to him, before looking directly at Griffon, who flinched a little when this time he could barely contain his irritation.

“Thank you, Griffon. I hadn’t noticed it.”

V retired the covers in order to step out of the bed, frowning confused when not finding his clothes in the chair before remembering they had been carelessly discarded in the floor the previous night. He was in the process of gathering them when Griffon talked again. 

“But if that woman is there, where is the kid?”

“With his fiancée.”

The invoker regretted his bitter, too straightforward words when seeing Griffon’s beak opening, surely to let out a squawk that could wake up the entire inn. Fortunately he managed to react in time, invoking Shadow so that the panther curled a dark tentacle around Griffon’s beak to interrupt his excessively loud ‘ _WHAT?_ ’ before it could alert Zaira, who simply sighed in her sleep.

When seeing that the bird had understood the warning, V silently commanded Shadow to release his companion. Griffon shook his head a little, snorting softly at Shadow who didn’t look the least bothered by it, before looking at V, who had already recovered all his clothes and was leaving them on the bed.

“ _What?_ ”, Griffon repeated with stupor, but now with an acceptable low volume, “b-but what is she doing here?” 

“Well, she had some free time and passed by to attend the festival”, he had to suppress the urge of clicking his tongue when Griffon didn’t detect the sarcasm in his voice, “she was worried about Nero and came for him, so obviously they spent the night together.”

When his whispering answers made Zaira change position again, ending facing up in the bed, V he was about to command his familiars to retire. He waited when seeing that Griffon was about to speak again, immediately regretting the courtesy showed when hearing the bird’s next words:

“And how do you feel about it?”

V ignored the way his heart skipped a beat, talking with his best neutral tone.

“Why should I feel _anything_ about it?”, he looked at Griffon with an imperturbable expression, “it’s nothing of my concern or interest. And now, I think you two should go back before the doctor wakes up or I will have a complicated time explaining your presence here.”

Not wanting to give his familiar a new chance to ask unwanted questions, V clapped his fingers all the softly he could not to make too much noise, forcibly making both Griffon and Shadow disappear.

After that, he stepped in the narrow bathroom and took a quick shower, innerly hoping that Zaira kept sleeping when he came back to the room, because as much attentive as the woman had been with him, now he was feeling deeply ashamed of having lowered his guard around her so much. Not to mention _that_ slip that had put an end to a night that promised to be rather satisfying. A slip that he would make his most to forget for the sake of carrying out his mission as smoothly as possible. 

However, as he was in part fearing, when he abandoned the bathroom with a long towel wrapped around his lower body Zaira was already awake, looking at herself in the mirror of the room while trying to fix her long matted hair with very little success.

“Oh, good morning”, the woman greeted him with a cheery voice, before adopting a softer tone as her eyes turned inquisitive, “how are you?”

V suspected that she wasn’t only asking about his health, but he decided to take it literally.

“Better. Sleeping through the night helped”, he managed a decent half-smile towards the woman, deciding not to mention that he hadn’t rested as much as he should, “thank you for staying.”

Zaira looked about to press the matter but at the last minute she seemed to think better about it and shook her head.

“I would be a really horrible doctor if I hadn’t done it.”

She seemed to give up in fixing her hair because at that moment she used one of her bracelets to tie it in a loose bun. She then recovered her handbag and stopped in front of V.

“You both are leaving today?”

V nodded.

“Yes, although first we will need to get some supplies. We will be travelling by car for a couple of days at least.”

“Oh, in that case you should visit the mall. It’s a little far away from Pitchbale, but it’s your best option since part of the shops will be closed for the festival”, Zaira lowered her tone conspiratorially, “although if you need medical supplies, I can make you a good price.”

V’s smile grew a little.

“You have done more than enough already, so I would prefer you weren’t accused of drug smuggling because of us.”

Zaira chuckled.

“Yes, probably you’re right”, she bit her lower lip and tiptoed to deposit a quick kiss on V’s cheek, “well, in case I don’t see you again, it was nice to meet you.”

V nodded again.

“It was nice to meet you, Zaira.”

When the woman’s eyes opened more, V realized it was the first time he called her by her first name, which considering the circumstances of their brief story together was quite ironic. The woman seemed to somehow read it in his expression because she snorted softly, pointing an accusing finger at him.

“For now I’ll let it pass, but it’s Dr. Dorens for you, mister.” 

She approached the door with a theatrical haughty attitude that lost all its effect when she turned around before closing the door and waved her hand goodbye towards V with a fond, playful expression. V returned the smile and nodded once, aware that the chances to see the doctor again would be low.

When the door closed behind Zaira, V spent another minute drying himself. Under normal circumstances he would wait until his hair wasn’t that wet before dressing, but at that moment he quickly removed the remaining dampness of his body and began to dress up. He could feel his tattoos wanting to vanish, betraying his familiars’ intention of manifesting. The change in his skin was fortunately imperceptible, so only someone who was paying an exceptional close attention would notice the black ink undulating a little. 

Since V wasn’t entirely sure of winning over his familiars’ will of appearing once again to continue with the previous conversation, he quickly reviewed that he had packed everything to go to the inn’s dining room as fast as possible. After all, his familiars may act impulsively more times than not, but they were prudent enough not to appear in a public place without a solid motive not to cause him trouble. 

V couldn’t help to notice that the stuffed toy Nero gave him the previous day was nowhere to be found, but he rapidly forced himself to stop thinking about it (and also _searching_ for it) because it wasn’t something important. It _shouldn’t_ be, so after taking his shoulder bag and cane he abandoned the room and climbed down the stairs leading to the main floor.

The same as the rest of the inn, the [ dining room ](https://www.friesacher.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Friesacher-Hotel-Anif-Restaurant-Gaststube_989b0d7945.jpg) wasn’t particularly big, so it didn’t take V much to pinpoint Nero sitting in one of the benches next to the windows, looking through the glass absentmindedly while being unaware of his presence. Surprisingly, he was alone, although V guessed Kyrie wouldn’t be far away. 

V suppressed a gulp, considering his options. Part of him was really tempted to simply ignore the boy and take a quick breakfast on his own, but he knew it wouldn’t be clever to behave in such a way. The fact that now he was resolved to be extra careful with his interactions with Nero didn’t mean they had to come back to hating each other. It would be counterproductive considering they worked well together, so the best way to deal with the current situation was to act as if nothing had changed. Which, in fact, was rather accurate because with the exception of his brusque goodbye from the previous night, literally _nothing_ had happened, and in case Nero decided to ask about it, he could always use the excuse of having been tired. 

With that resolve in mind V approached the table with all the calm he could gather, walking through the already occupied tables until ending next to Nero’s table. The boy hadn’t noticed his presence yet, and since V wasn’t entirely sure about how to announce himself he simply decided to act as usual by taking the seat situated in front of Nero.

V immediately realized he should have said something though, because the jump Nero gave when he sat in front of him caused the whole table to tremble, not to mention that as result Nero had hit his knees against the wood in a probably painful way for the low hiss that escaped his mouth before looking at him with a frown,

“Fuck, couldn’t you say ‘good morning’ like a normal person?”

V’s eyebrow twitched briefly when Nero protested with a too loud tone, while showing a deep annoyance that was clearly disproportionate considering that he had only provoked the boy a little scare. 

Well, definitely not the best way to start the morning.

However, V managed to remember that he had promised himself to make an effort so that things didn’t get unnecessarily tense between Nero and him, and that replying back sarcastically wouldn’t help achieve that objective. 

“I thought you had noticed me.”

Hoping that his answer counted as an acceptable apology V reached for the menu placed in front of him, breaking eye contact with Nero to decide what to order. Devoting all his effort to sound perfectly casual, he talked again.

“I presume your fiancée will be joining us as well?”

V couldn’t understand why such a normal question caused Nero to tense even more, as if _he_ had asked something out of place. Perhaps tiredness was still present in his body and he was overthinking things, because there was absolute no motive for Nero to react in such a way. 

“Yeah, she has gone to leave her suitcase in the reception.”

V pushed rapidly away the wave of annoyance that tried to invade him when, unlike other occasions, Nero didn’t complain for him addressing Kyrie in such an ‘archaic’ way. He raised his eyes from the menu, leaving it on the table for the sake of observing Nero.

The boy seemed to be lost in his thoughts again, looking through the window with a suspicious excess of interest because the small street outside didn’t deserve such an intense attention. V frowned slightly. Perhaps in his absence the boy had entered some kind of argument with Kyrie? Though he seriously doubted that the boring woman was able to strike such a strong reaction. Actually, he found difficult to believe that she was able to provoke _any kind_ of strong reaction.

Not liking where his thoughts were going V talked again, in order to stop his wandering thoughts but also because he decided it was better to ask instead of wasting time imagining theories.

“You look absent.”

Once again, he asked a perfectly acceptable question.

And once again, Nero surprised him by gritting his teeth and looking at him with a light accusing look that made V open his eyes more.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t sleep much”, Nero’s eyes briefly diverted downwards, stopping at his neck before meeting his eyes again, “what about you? Did _you_ sleep well?” 

V half-closed his eyes, annoyed because first, he was not used to Nero being the one in using sarcasm, and second, because he couldn’t possibly understand from where it came from. Although considering his lately behaviours, V didn’t discard either the possibility of him reading too much into everything. Maybe Nero was simply exhausted after the activities that ensued after the boy abandoned the beach with his fiancée. Maybe his inexperience had got him excessively carried away and now he was paying for that poorly managed enthusiasm.

When that last thought crossed his mind V felt his hands turning into fists unconsciously. However, he didn’t need to come with a proper reply because at that moment Kyrie joined them. She was initially surprised to see V there, but if she was bothered by it she didn’t let it show, since her smile when talking next looked genuine.

“Oh, good morning”, the woman greeted him while taking the seat next to Nero as this one automatically leaned his elbow on the back of the bench, in a complete unnecessary gesture of belonging that made V be about to roll his eyes.

“Good morning.”

After V’s polite reply, Kyrie asked if they had made their choices already, which gave V and Nero an excuse to check the menu again, even if V already knew what he wanted. 

The waitress came to pick their orders when they still had the menus in their hands, leaving with an amicable smile by assuring them it wouldn’t take long until the food was served.

The conversation completely died for V at that moment after he decided to adopt Nero’s previous posture of looking through the window, feeling unable or willing to find a single common topic to discuss with that woman, not feeling in the mood either to try any more attempts of conversation with Nero when Kyrie was present. At least his coffee was the first thing in being served, which gave V an excuse to focus on it while Kyrie and Nero talked between them. Or, more accurately, while Kyrie did so and Nero answered in a less talkative way than usual. 

When the rest of the food was finally served, V innerly hoped that the woman shut up once and for all, clearly preferring the silence as awkward as it was rather than her annoyingly sweet voice. However, his wish wasn’t fulfilled, and at some point Kyrie began to talk about some orphans who she and the boy were taking care of in a really parental way, which made him remember once again what a fool he had been for seriously considering the possibility of sharing a common future with Nero after the mission finished.

Aware of how _horribly wrong_ such a thought had sounded, V was about to abandon the table with whatever excuse when someone else approached the table.

“Hi there!”

V would have never thought that he would be glad of Finn suddenly interrupting a conversation, but at that moment he really was.

However, Nero was faster than him in greeting the young sailor, and when hearing the honestly cheery tone the boy used to speak, V’s suspicions about Nero having some kind of problem with him specifically gained strength.

Which, of course, didn’t help to improve his mood at all.

“Hey, Finn”, Nero greeted a smile “you were also sleeping in the inn?”

“Oh no, we just passed by to recover some things.”

V soon discovered why Finn had talked in plural, since some seconds later Mr. Jenkins joined his grandson in the dining room, addressing V’s first while still looking at the kid suspiciously.

“Is he bothering you again?”

V had to conceal a small smirk when seeing the nervous expression that appeared in the kid’s face when hearing his grandfather’s question.

“On the contrary: his presence is very much welcome.”

Mr. Jenkins and Finn showed respective incredulous expressions when hearing V’s completely honest comment. 

“Excuse me, are you perhaps the man who saved Nero?”, Kyrie suddenly intervened, looking at Mr. Jenkins with her eyes shining a little with gratitude after this one nodded a little brusquely, “I will never be able to thank you enough.”

The old man blinked, confused for a moment, before an expression of understanding appeared in his face.

“So you are the kid’s girlfriend”, the man looked at Nero with a teasing smile, “now I understand why you were so fond of that pendant. I would be as well if someone as lovely had given it to me.”

Kyrie giggling with embarrassment due to Mr. Jenkins' compliment was the indication V was waiting for to stand up without warning, making everyone look at him with surprise.

“My apologies, but we have a car to rent so I would prefer to leave it arranged as soon as possible.”

“Oh, but the car rental doesn’t open until 10 I think”, Finn explained, and V was rather proud when he managed to only blink without changing his expression, neither variating his tone of voice when talking again.

“Good to know, but still I have to take care of the checkout and have the list of supplies finished.”

The excuse seemed to (hopefully) convince Finn, so after leaving some bills on the counter to pay for the breakfast V brought himself to look at Nero, whose expression when looking at him was back to be more serious and puzzled than when interacting with the others, which surely influenced the commanding tinge in his tone.

“I’ll see you there at 10.”

“Uhm…”, V deduced his way to look at Kyrie had been harsher than intended when she cleared her throat with nervousness, “...actually my train leaves at that hour.”

V tilted his head a little to the side when hearing the comment.

“So?”

The way everyone looked at him indicated that he was the only one who wasn’t understanding something apparently quite evident.

“So, I will accompany her to the station”, Nero intervened with a matter-of-a-fact tone, as if such a thing was obvious.

V nodded, managing not to sound too impatient when talking next.

“10.30 then”, V forced himself to look at Kyrie as well, “I hope you have a safe trip.”

The woman offered him an hesitant smile and nodded.

“Thank you, V. I hope to see you again.”

‘ _I don’t’_ , V couldn’t help to think by passing before finally abandoning the dining room. 

He was rather tempted to delay the check out to the maximum in order to come back to the room, since the tension present in the breakfast had provoked a light draining effect in his body, but at the end he decided to return the room’s keys and go directly to the car rental establishment.

Perhaps a walk was all he needed to clear his mind, and that way the probabilities of him snapping at Nero for having such incomprehensible resentment towards him would be reduced.

* * *

“And promise me that you’ll call me if something wrong happens again.”

“I will, but don’t worry: I won’t be about to die again.”

Kyrie exhaled a long sigh, looking at Nero ‘threateningly’.

“You better, because Julio promised that the next time he would come for you as well, and you know how stubborn he is.”

Nero chuckled and nodded, hugging Kyrie tightly against him. He exhaled a long sigh before separating, while continuing grabbing her hands between his.

“I’m sorry”, she showed an honest confused expression while he looked at her apologetically, “at the end we couldn’t—”

He was interrupted by a soft kiss, and by Kyrie’s hand settling gently in his cheek.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

Nero gulped subtly and nodded, ignoring the small voice that protested against Kyrie’s statement.

He initiated the next kiss, which ended being more intense and passionate, as if he felt the necessity of proving Kyrie how much she meant for him, while reminding himself at the same time that he should _never_ repeat the mistake he made the previous night of allowing something... _someone_ to distract him from what he and Kyrie had come to have.

Although well, if he was completely honest, something similar had happened that same morning as well, since his attention had continuously been drawn towards V until the invoker had decided to abandon the table.

However, this time he had a justification: first, he had seen Zaira climbing down the stairs, which surely indicated that she had spent the whole night with V, and then soon after that V had joined him in the breakfast as if nothing had happened, showing off those hickeys in his neck while pretending not to know what he was talking about. 

Come on, it was _obvious_ that he was going to be distracted _and_ annoyed when V seemed to have spent one hell of a wild night while he had been unable to do _anything._ Fuck, what the hell was going though V’s head? Some days ago the invoker was claiming he didn’t want to get attached to anyone, but then he suddenly decided to break his lone-wolf code and go all out with practically a stranger, while Nero still felt like a damn tightrope walker every time that he tried to know a little more about V, always afraid of asking something he shouldn’t and which could cause the man to rise the barriers around himself again.

But well, he guessed that fucking with a random woman was easier than showing a little of well-deserved trust with him after all that time, huh?

“I think I should enter the train already.”

Nero snapped out from his thoughts when realizing that, after promising himself he would never be distracted again by V, he had managed to do it again _while he was still kissing Kyrie_. 

“Y-Yeah, sure”, despite her warning, he hugged her a last time, managing to push back somehow his frustration towards himself when whispering the next words, “I love you.”

Kyrie returned the embrace, sighing as her arms hooked around his back.

“I love you too, Nero”, when they separated there was a trembling smile in her face, and after a short pause she talked again, her eyes brighter than before, “and please, come back home.”

Nero frowned confused. He didn’t know why but when Kyrie spelled that last petition, he had the feeling that she wasn’t worried about him dying, but simply about him not coming back. However, before he could ask Kyrie anything the speakers announced the immediate departure of the train and with a gasp Kyrie entered, the doors closing automatically mere seconds after Nero stepped down the train, after helping Kyrie carry her suitcase.

He remained in the station until the train completely disappeared, waving his hand goodbye in response to Kyrie doing the same from the train window. He also touched the pendant that was again around his neck, after Kyrie managed to fix it while he wasted the damn morning sleeping.

When the platform was finally empty once again he took a deep breath and with his jaw clenched he walked towards the exit. Initially he considered taking the bus again, since that would allow him to reach the center of the city in mere 15 minutes, but at the end he decided to go on foot.

He hoped that the 45 minutes walk would help him relax before initiating the journey. The last one had been intense enough after all, and the last thing Nero wanted was to have a new rugged one, even if deep inside he had the feeling that his wishes wouldn’t be listened.

* * *

Twenty minutes had passed since V had been given the keys of the [ car ](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/GOnAZ/s3/2018-toyota-land-cruiser.jpg) he had rented when, through the glassed doors of the car rental, he saw Nero approaching, with his left hand in his pocket and his mechanic one sustaining the strap of the backpack.

V checked the hour on the clock hanging inside the office, and after exhaling an impatient sigh he thanked the man sitting on the desk who had attended him before stepping outside, crossing his arms while Nero got closer.

“You are late.”

Instead of trying to find an excuse, Nero simply snorted.

“I missed the bus back here”, he let the backpack fall heavily on the ground before signaling the car outside the place with his chin, “is that one?”

V observed Nero in silence for some seconds before talking with an acceptable calmed tone.

“Yes. I’ve arranged it to use it during the rest of the week, although if everything goes according to the plan we will have finished sooner.”

Nero nodded to himself, kneeling down to extract a bottle of water from the bag to take a long sip.

“Cool. I’m beginning to get tired of this trip.”

Nero’s comment was actually pretty logical, and truth to be told it wasn’t the first time that V thought something along those lines, but at that moment hearing Nero make such a statement made V’s fingers dig in his arms more.

“Rest assured: this will fortunately be the last time we share a transport together”, he went towards the opened car’s trunk to leave his cane and bag inside, remaining there as Nero also approached to store his backpack and sword, “I have taken the liberty of programming the GPS already to go to the mall Zaira mentioned. Apparently today it's the best place to refill our supplies.”

Nero, who was about to close the trunk, stopped midway to look at V with a too imperturbable expression.

“Zaira.”

V looked at him slightly confused.

“Yes. The woman who attended us in the hospital, Dr. Dorens—”

“I know who she is.”

V blinked when Nero closed the trunk with way more force than necessary before brusquely entering the car. This time, he had to innerly count to three before sitting on the copilot seat. He had barely put the belt on when Nero was already starting the car, beginning to drive with a speed that was slightly superior to the recommended one to go around the city. 

They remained in a clearly uncomfortable silence until reaching the main road. According to the GPS indications it would take them around 30 minutes to arrive at the mall, although if Nero continued at that speed the time would be surely reduced. 

Nevertheless, it was still too much time for V to keep standing Nero’s attitude.

“Nero.”

“Yeah?”

“Could you please explain me why you are acting like a sulking infant?”

Nero’s eyes opened more when hearing his question. He met his inquisitive gaze with a dumbfounded expression that was soon replaced by an irritated one.

In retrospective, V realized he could have chosen better words to approach the matter, but he had grown tired of trying to guess what the source of the boy’s incomprehensible behavior was, specially because among the two, Nero had never been the kind of person in keeping things for himself, a characteristic of his personality that V would never admit to admire.

“What?”

“I have said if you could explain—”

“Yeah, I’ve heard you, but _what_? Who the hell are you calling a ‘sulking infant’?”

“My apologies but I’m unable to come up with a better definition for your attitude of this morning.”

“ _My_ attitude? Man, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.”

“And do you really expect me to believe that? ”

“Honestly, I don’t fucking care what you believe or not, V. But if one of us is acting strange…”, Nero snorted loudly, shaking his head while looking in front of him again, “...I think that the big prize would go for you.”

V gritted his teeth, his intention of keeping a calm conversation completely forgotten because, for once, he was pretty sure he had done _nothing_ to be blamed for.

“Stop the car.”

Nero frowned when hearing his cold command, his blue eyes still fixed on the road.

“What?”

“Stop the car right now.”

The boy didn’t obey, having the nerve to huff instead.

“We are in a [ curve ](https://aiesec.org.mx/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/RoadBeach.jpg) , you genius. So if you don’t want to finish the journey in the damn sea we better not— _hey_!”

Ignoring Nero, V grabbed the wheel with his gloved hand to rotate it towards his side, forcing Nero to snap his foot against the breaks, causing the car to turn brusquely to end in a practical perpendicular position to the road.

“Are you fucking crazy?!”, Nero exclaimed, “you want to kill us both or what?”

“You are going to tell me what’s wrong.”

V made his demand by menacingly fixing his eyes on Nero’s ones, causing the boy to return the gaze in the same way.

“I’ve already said that there’s nothing wrong, you asshole.”

V half-closed his eyes, leaning forward so that his face was closer to Nero, who immediately tensed though he didn’t pull away, V noticed.

“Do you think I am stupid, Nero?”, he inquired with a smooth tone that didn’t match the force he was using to grab the wheel, making sure that way that Nero wouldn’t try to return to the driving, “it is evident you are lying. I know that something is wrong, I know it is somehow related to me, and I demand to know what is it because I refuse to let this situation continue one second longer so... ”, V dared to get even closer until he could feel the boy’s breathing hitch, “...speak. _Now_.”

At that distance he could see the way Nero thickly swallowed, the boy’s adam’s apple bobbing up and down softly as a result, and V was forced to avert his eyes from the movement before unnecessary images were evoked because of it.

“Shit, okay”, Nero said after some seconds, exhaling a long defeated sigh while leaning back against his seat, “yeah, you’re right: there’s something wrong”, Nero shifted, uncomfortably, “and yeah, it kind of has to do something with you.”

V exhaled an humorless chuckle and crossed his arms, sarcasm easily slipping in his voice when talking next, which made Nero tense even more than before.

“Well, I’m all ears, Nero. Please, enlighten me about how _I_ managed to upset _you_ in such a way—”

“ _That_.”

V frowned with confusion when Nero suddenly interrupted him to point at him accusingly, his eyes, nervous some seconda go, showing frustration and also something quite similar to disappointment.

“That?”, V repeated, surprised when Nero suddenly tapped with index at his partly displayed chest.

“That’s the problem with you”, Nero snapped, “it’s fucking impossible to talk normally to you without you being a jerk about it. We’ve been travelling together for what, two weeks already? We’ve saved each other lives, we’ve been about to _die_ , and despite all that it still feels like you can’t fucking trust me to have a simple talk when you have no fucking problem in sleeping with the first girl that wants to get into your pants.”

After Nero’s outburst, silence fell in the car.

But then, slowly, the stupor V had been feeling while listening to Nero gave rise to anger.

So Nero was accusing him of _not_ trusting him? Precisely because he had trusted the boy he had allowed himself to lower his guard, discovering soon what a big mistake doing that had been. 

And then, not satisfied with that, Nero was criticizing him for wanting to do the same thing Nero himself had done the whole night, without knowing that V had miserable failed because somehow his mind refused to stop thinking about the boy even in that situation.

V took a long deep breath with his eyes closed, trying to contain the urge he had of initiating a fight with Nero right there and then that, maybe this time, wouldn’t stop with the first blood. He managed, somehow, but when he opened his eyes again, a quiet anger was still present in his eyes and voice. 

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, trust is something you have to win, don’t you think?”

Nero’s eyes opened more, surely understanding the implications of his words, but V hadn’t finished yet.

“And regarding with whom I invest my time or not…”, V’s tone gained harshness until he was practically hissing the next words, “...that is nothing of your concern. So, the same as I keep to myself any comments about how you decide to live your romantic _and_ sexual life, I expect you to do the same, because I owe you _no_ explanation and much less a justification about whom I decide to bring to my bed. Bear _that_ in mind.”

The most powerful sword would have difficulties in cutting the silence that fell between them at that moment.

Probably realizing that the chances of emerging victorious or, at least, not deathly wounded from that confrontation were scarce, Nero seemed to decide that, for once, a momentary withdrawal was the best solution, and so he proceeded to carry it out by abandoning the car with the most puzzled expression V had ever seen him display.

Even if his expression kept being a cold mask, V’s heart skipped a beat when thinking that perhaps Nero was seriously going to take his things and leave. However, instead of approaching the trunk the boy simply walked some meters in front of the car with his hands on his hips. When there were some good meters between the car and him Nero stopped and looked towards the sea, his deeper breaths letting V know that the boy was doing that to calm himself down as well.

Despite V was angry with Nero, he couldn’t help to think that the boy had definitely grown up during the journey, since when everything started he was pretty sure that Nero’s reaction would have been more impulsive, violent even. 

At that moment he felt his tattoos reacting once again, but this time he allowed them to disappear, deciding it was useless to keep delaying the inevitable.

“ _Finally_ !”, Griffon squawked the moment he landed in the back seats together with Shadow, beginning to protest almost immediately, “damn, V, it’s not that I’m claustrophobic or something, but after having to keep hidden in the hospital _and_ in the festival the least you could do was to let us out when—”

Griffon stopped talking, tilting his head in confusion when noticing the curious position of the car.

“Uhm...did you have an accident or something?”

V sighed, settling his elbow on the window in order to lean his chin on his knuckles.

“No. We simply decided to take a small break.”

Griffon took the liberty of sitting on Nero’s seat while Shadow made the most of the extra space to lie completely on the back seats, though his attention was focused on V from behind.

“A break”, Griffon repeated, looking at Nero still standing outside before looking at V, “it looks more like a fight.”

V didn’t say anything, looking at Nero begin to walk back and forth while following the line of road before exhaling a sigh.

“Well, there were some things that needed to be clarified.”

Griffon hummed in confusion.

“Really? Like what?”

“Like Nero minding his own business in regards of my sexual life.”

The silence that fell next should have warned V about to high-pitched ‘ _What?!_ ’ that Griffon let out, and that forced V to close the opposite window so that there wasn’t the least chance of Nero eavesdropping their conversation.

“But why the hell should the kid inquire about—”, Griffon gasped at that moment, as if having a revelation, “wait a moment, then you and that woman that was in your room…”

V rolled his eyes when Griffon let the sentence hanging unnecessarily. 

“Well, if Shadow and you were as capable of detecting my changes of mood as you claim to be, you should be able to know what happened or not.”

“Hey now, you aren’t precisely the easiest person to read, so even if we can detect when something is wrong it doesn’t mean we know _everything_ ”, Shadow grunted from behind, as if agreeing with Griffon for once, “besides, we—or well, that giant cat back there knows when we have to retire, so yesterday in the festival we were purposely dormant to give you more privacy, you know? So spit it out, you ungrateful kid: what the hell happened yesterday?”

V suppressed a gulp, honestly not feeling like remembering it and much less giving too many details about it, so he made the most concise summary he was able to come up with.

“So…”, Griffon inquired after he finished, “...what you are saying is that after Nero left with that woman...”

“With his _fiancée_.”

“...you decided to do the same with the doctor, but for some reason that you don’t want to say you were unable to do much...”

“I have already explained that we were more tired than we had foreseen and—”

“...and then, today the boy was super pissed off because he thinks you did something with that woman, since you _haven’t_ told him that nothing happened with her.”

“I don’t know why should I give him any explanations about it.”

“And after all that, you don’t have the least idea why the boy could be behaving like that? Not even a tiny one?”

V exhaled a long sigh while rubbing his temple, talking next with a sarcastic tone.

“I have the feeling you are going to expose your theory I want it or not.”

“Yeah, you bet I am, although honestly I’m still surprised you haven’t noticed it yourself.”

V frowned, looking at Griffon again to see him shaking his head with exasperation.

“Notice what?”

“That the kid was surely jealous!”

V’s eyes opened wide, and so did his mouth before he recovered his irritated expression with a loud click of tongue.

“Nonsense.”

“Okay, then how would you explain that attitude?”

V blinked, averting his eyes for a moment before talking with a rather reasonable tone.

“Well, I remind you that despite being with his fiancée for years, he is _still_ a virgin, which may indicate that he has inherited certain moral standards as a result of having been raised in the Order of the Sword since he was a child”, V was so busy talking that he didn’t realize the way Griffon was staring at him in utter stupor, “so, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that such beliefs include condemning certain improper behaviours, such as engaging yourself in carnal acts outside the marriage and—”

“Bull - _shit_ ”, V didn’t even have the time of feeling irritated for the brusque interruption because Griffon continued speaking with a patient tone, “V, for goodness sake, it’s not _that_ complicated. Should I remind you what a simpleton that boy is? He doesn’t think that much so it’s obvious he was jealous. I would bet my beak on it, and I’m sure Shadow would beat his claws.”

When hearing Griffon’s convinced statement and the way Shadow grunted, agreeing once again with the bird, V gulped subtly and averted his eyes towards Nero, catching the boy looking at him before rapidly looking towards the sea again while scratching the back of his head.

So, according to his familiars, the motive for Nero’s behaviour was jealousy? 

But that had no sense. Considering the circumstances surrounding Nero, there was no justifiable reason for the boy to be harboring such a feeling, and in case of Griffon not being mistaken, the only possible explanation for it was that Nero—

V managed to push away the thoughts that had been about to assault him before they fully formed, remembering at the last second that he had promised himself not to overstep in regards to his interactions with Nero, so avoiding to reach baseless, _dangerous_ conclusions was the first step to guarantee he wouldn’t be fooled ever again.

“As I said, nonsense”, Griffon was about to protest but V threw a warning glance at him, while talking with a tone that sounded more defensive that he would have liked, “and for now on, I would greatly recommend you to reduce those unfounded theories to the maximum unless you want to spend even more time locked inside. Have I made myself clear?”

V also looked behind him, so that Shadow knew that the threat was also directed to him. His familiars interchanged a look, and although V expected some resistance from Griffon, he was surprised when the bird talked with a defeated tone.

“Whatever you say, V. But you should be careful. Because the more you bottle up those feelings you refuse to have, the harder they will explode at the end. Just saying.”

V stared in disbelief at the empty place of the driver seat after Griffon voluntarily returned to him, being soon followed with Shadow. Contrary to the previous times where he had fought to prevent his familiars from appearing, V was about to invoke his familiars again to demand Griffon a proper explanation of his late warning when a loud horn sound coming from behind startled him. 

He realized that because of the car’s position, a bus had been forced to stop behind them after being unable to proceed. V was about to warn Nero about it but it wasn’t necessary: the boy was already running towards the car while saying a loud ‘ _Sorry, my fault_ ’ towards the other driver, entering again in the car seconds later.

V didn’t say anything while Nero put his belt on and maneuvered to turn the car in the right direction. Once they were facing the road again, Nero looked through the frontal rearview mirror and after making an apologetic gesture with his right mechanical hand towards the driver behind them, he resumed the driving.

None of them spelled a word during almost 5 minutes until Nero suddenly broke the silence, talking with a casualness that surprised V.

“You haven’t told me anything yet about our next destination”, Nero looked at V, who was cautiously looking at him, “please, just tell me it isn’t another island.”

Against his will, a hint of a smirk was about to escape V when hearing Nero’s comment, but he managed to stop it before it fully formed, because he didn’t want to fall into the already familiar routine of mutual teasing, since that was one of the reasons why he had begun to get excessively close to the boy. So, even if his tone when answering wasn’t cold anymore, it was more serious than the one he had got used to adopt when being around Nero.

“It is quite the opposite indeed. Our next stop will be mountain.”

He didn’t give more details, focusing on the landscape of the sea he had in his left while feeling Nero’s eyes on him. Eventually, the devil hunter answered with a laconic ‘ _Cool_ ’ that indicated that the boy had noticed that something between them had changed. 

V knew it was the wisest thing to do. That keeping his distance and putting some boundaries between them was the only way to guarantee he wouldn’t waste time in paying attention to things he shouldn’t invest time into.

However, even if he had never minded silence, part of him couldn’t help to consider the one that accompanied them during the rest of the journey incredibly annoying.

* * *

“While you gather the food I will take care of the medical supplies. Make sure to prioritize food that can be easily preserved because we won’t have many chances to stop.”

“Roger”, Nero said, accepting the piece of paper V handled him while beginning to walk in the opposite direction than the invoker inside the rather big supermarket. 

It had taken them around 20 minutes to arrive at the [ shopping center ](https://images.prop24.com/212820781), plus five minutes of parking the car outside and another two of entering the supermarket, and during all that time those indications were the only words that had left V’s mouth.

Nero exhaled a long sigh while searching for the correct section, dragging a portable carrier behind. He had been tempted to try to break the silence after that initial unsuccessful, _pathetic_ attempt of conversation, but V’s reply, polite but cutting, had convinced him that being prudent wouldn’t hurt for once. Because he could have the sensibility of a stone, and usually miss things that were supposedly obvious, but he would have to be a complete dickhead not to realize that his outburst in the car had been completely out of place.

Nero stopped in front of one of the shelves full of canned food, taking one distractedly. Fuck, he felt embarrassment spreading inside when remembering all the bullshit he had snapped before. It was true that V being sarcastic when he was making an effort to answer his question had got under his skin, especially because he hadn’t even know how to reply at the moment. But damn, by then he already knew that sarcasm was V’s way of dealing with things that made him uncomfortable, and surely the obvious annoyance he had displayed towards the invoker would achieve that effect. Not to mention that, no matter how he tried to justify him losing his cool, accusing V of sleeping with Zaira had taken the cake in the blunders department.

Damn, no doubt that V had been pissed off. The invoker was right when saying that it was nothing of his business. And damn, as much as it had bothered him to hear V imply that he didn’t deserve his trust, as much as it had actually _hurt_ in a way that Nero wasn’t prepared for, ultimately he had been the one in screwing it up first. 

It had been a good idea to step outside the car to try to clear his mind. He was sure that V had invoked his familiars to pick holes in him, and this time he didn’t have the right to complain about it.

And shit, the worst part was that he didn’t even know where his discomfort regarding V getting intimate with someone else came from. 

Because it had - no - fucking - _sense_. 

Maybe V hadn’t been wrong when saying he was a sulking child that got annoyed because his friend got himself a girlfriend (a casual lover, in this case) and stopped paying attention to him. And what if V had decided to open himself with another person before doing it to himself? That was good for him! So it had zero sense to feel upset about it, and much less to have felt that unpleasant tightness when V had called that woman by her first name, revealing a level of intimacy that hadn’t been there during the festival and that had been surely born from the night they spent together.

When realizing he had been observing without seeing the same can for almost a couple of minutes, Nero cursed and returned it to the shelf, trying to focus on his task as hand.

The last thing he needed right then was to upset V more, and although he was aware that he owed V a proper apology, he had the feeling that bringing up the topic wasn’t a good idea. It sucked, because he couldn’t expect that things magically got better between them if they simply acted as if nothing had happened, but probably he should wait a little until V felt more inclined to listen to him. 

And Nero really hoped V would. Because he had got already used to the less sarcastic and more ironic side of V, to the invoker being comfortable enough around him to do something as casual as simply chatting with him, like they did in the hospital, or even _dancing_ with him, as they did in the festival, and he didn’t want to lose that. 

He didn’t want to come back to square one again, but he had to accept that maybe because of his stupid comment, V’s politeness was the only thing he deserved to expect from then on, even if there wasn’t anything that he wanted less.

Dropping unceremoniously a couple of cans inside the carrier, he was about to go to the next section when a strident, metallic sound invaded the place and he automatically reached for his weapon, while facing the source of the noise.

When pinpointing the culprit he relaxed, since it was a small kid showing an utterly guilty face next to some fallen kitchen tools, that he had accidentally dropped to the floor for having dragged his carrier with too much emphasis.

“Ron! I told you to be careful!”, a woman around her forties, presumably the kid’s mother, exclaimed from some meters away while she was in the process of storing some products on her bigger carrier.

“It was the tools’ fault”, Nero intervened automatically, approaching the kid to crouch on the floor to help him return everything to its place, “they were poorly situated, right?”

The kid chuckled when Nero winked at him exaggeratedly as his mother showed the hint of an amused smile.

“Ron, what do we say when someone helps us—?”

 

The second strident sound took Nero completely by surprise.

 

And so did the way the floor suddenly trembled under the child’s mother feet when a familiar tentacled root pierced through the floor and the woman’s chest, raising her in the air as her limbs hanged loose and immobile on either side of her body.

 

“ _Mom!!”_

 

The boy’s heartrending cry woke up Nero from his momentary paralysis after seeing the tendril shaking that woman’s body as if it was a ragged doll. He rapidly grabbed the boy, managing to jump back in time to avoid a new tendril that had appeared through the floor, and began to run to the opposite side as the floor began to crack under them. 

“No no no, mom! Mom!”, the boy was crying in his arms, trying to set himself free, “wait, please! We have to help her!! _Mom!!!_ ”

Nero couldn’t bring himself to tell the boy that it was too late for his mother, that there was no way that she had survived the attack. 

By when he reached the main corridor of the supermarket, several holes had been opened in the more and more cracked ground. Empusas, cainas and tendrils were already emerging from it in order to hunt down the people who desperately tried to escape from the hell that the supermarket had turned into in a matter of seconds.

Nero shook his head, forcing himself to focus over the sound of shelves falling, things breaking and people crying in fear, like the boy who was now trembling and sobbing in his arms. He looked around, quickly reaching the conclusion that there wasn’t any place safe inside there, so after grabbing the kid with force he extracted Blue Rose and began to run while shooting at the demons he crossed by. 

In the blink of an eye the calm surrounding the place had been striked away by chaos, but amidst all the thoughts invading Nero’s mind about how and why such a thing had happened _again_ so suddenly, there was one selfish thought that won over the rest:

He had to find V, because _like hell_ if any of them was going to die before figuring things out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Well, it had been a while since the last time some demons appeared ^^U And of course it had to happen when things weren't precisely well between the boys...
> 
> However, don't worry: even if the next chapter is going to be intense, I promise that this tension surrounding them won't last _too_ much and that there will be more fluff/bonding moments between them before FINALLY something happens <3 <3


	16. (May 31) - My fault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of Inktober and my other fic (which is finally finished yey!) this update took me longer than expected, so hope the length compensates for it <3

_**May 31 - ????** _

When V slowly opened his eyes again, complete darkness was surrounding him.

For some long seconds panic spread within him, since the first thought that invaded his mind was that he had not made it. That, eventually, he had failed to fulfill his mission, and that as a consequence he had been condemned to wander around aimlessly in that void for the rest of the eternity, like the useless, unnecessary part he supposedly was. 

However, when the stench of blood and corpses covering the place _and_ himself hit him, V finally remembered where he was, what had happened, and why he had collapsed for which seemed to be several hours.

V curled to one of his sides with effort in order to stand up. The ache that ran through his entire body as a result of such a simple action almost persuaded him from completing it, but he forced himself to push through the pain in order to end half-sitting on the ground covered in blood. 

After exhaling a deep, difficult breath V distinguished the shape of his cane lying a couple of meters away. Part of him was tempted to invoke one of his familiars in order to grab it, because the perspective of having to drag himself towards it was extremely unappealing. Such a desire seemed to be stronger than he thought, because at that moment part of his tattoos languidly began to conform Shadow in his shallow form. The trail travelled to his stick and slid it towards him. When it was within his reach, V grabbed it and dug it on the floor, feeling as if needles were piercing each muscle when using his cane as a support to rise to his feet again.

Once again he felt the temptation of giving up, but the perspective of simply lying there, merely waiting to be found by either friend or foe, was unacceptable.

In his state keeping balance on Shadow was a more difficult task that he had predicted, which forced his familiar to use a couple of shadowy tentacles that raised from the trail on the ground and that enclosed around his waist, in order to keep him in a straightened position. V’s first impulse was to protest when the familiar began to abandon the place, considering rather humiliating that Shadow was doing all the job of carrying him when his efforts were exclusively devoted not to release the cane while preventing his heavy eyelids from falling closed again. Eventually though V realized that he hadn’t much of a choice, so he resigned himself to be transported by Shadow as if he was a mere lifeless puppet, thinking that it was a low price to pay if he managed to recover enough so that just his familiars witnessed his lame state.

Needless to say, his wish was not fulfilled. 

* * *

 **_Several hours ago_ **

“This is incredible!! Now we can’t even go shopping without being bothered by these pests?!”

If V had a breath to spare, he would have ordered Griffon to stop wasting energy in useless, annoying talk, but he had not. At least, despite the bird’s incapacity of keeping his beak shut no matter the circumstances, he never failed to pick him up whenever an enemy got too close. This time, the mentioned enemy was a caina that broke through one of the shelves to try to slice V off with his scythe, and who ended with his head pierced in the floor when the invoker dug his cane on it, turning it into dust.

When finally having time to take a brief pause to analyze the situation after having been suddenly attacked, V observed his surroundings. At least a dozen of roots had invaded the supermarked. Some of them were smashing the customers who were imprudent enough to get too close in their hysterism to leave the place, while others had already curled around people that, for their sake, V hoped had been instantly killed in the first assault because being squeezed to death was a rather painful way of dying.

At that moment V commanded Shadow to attack a couple of red empusas that were trying to go after a couple of teenagers while Griffon took care of another caina approaching from the end of the corridor. He was considering the possibility of invoking Nightmare to add some more combat power to the battle when he heard a familiar shot sounding close, pulverizing a green empusa that had appeared out of nowhere from above them with the intention of making Griffon and Shadow’s effort go to waste.

V turned around towards the source of the shot, finding Nero there carrying a sobbing kid in his arms and his smoking gun in the other, still pointing at the place where the empusa had been a second ago.

“Thank you”, V said automatically as Nero approached, their previous differences parked momentarily aside for the sake of surviving.

“Sure”, Nero looked at V frowning, “fuck, what the hell is going on?”

V shook his head.

“I don’t know”, he admitted, “but I’m afraid there are too many demons to deal with on our own, so I suggest abandoning the place.”

He was about to proceed to walk towards the exit when Nero talked.

“But what about the rest of the people?”

V exhaled a sigh, looking around him in an unconscious gesture that delivered what he was thinking without the need of words: by then, it was too late to do something for those who hadn’t abandoned the place yet. 

When seeing the way Nero tensed his jaw and how his arm enclosed more tightly around that kid’s body, V got ready for the fight that would ensue after Nero refused to accept his argument. However, instead of going against his suggestion, Nero simply muttered a curse and nodded, adjusting his grip on the trembling kid while beginning to walk towards the exit while shooting at the empusas who got on his way with more rage than before.

Deciding that it wasn’t the best moment to admire the boy’s gained capacity of judgement, V followed Nero to abandon the mall, without stopping commanding his familiars to take care of the demons within their reach, the grip on his cane tightening every time they passed close to an inert body.

They managed to save some lifes on their way to the exit, but the place was too big and way too crowded, and for each person they managed to free from a demon’s pursue, several fell down under their attacks. V thought that, surely, if Nero wasn't carrying that boy he would have more freedom of movement, which perhaps would increase his chances of saving more people.

Of course, he kept that thought for himself.

When they reached the exit of the supermarket, the chaos that reigned outside did not fall short to the one that had taken place inside. As it usually happened in moments of crisis, those who had managed to abandon the place alive were desperately trying to come back to their cars in order to run away from that damnified place, no matter the cost. That was translated into people driving without caring about what or who stepped between them and the road. A couple of times V had to command Griffon to pick up people who had been about to be ran over, and by when Nero and him reached their car, the casualties indirectly provoked by people not knowing how to act in a critical situation were considerable.

“We have to call for help”, Nero said after entering the now way too silent kid inside the back seats, “these people are going to kill themselves at this rate.”

“Where are you going?”, V inquired when seeing Nero separating from the car.

“To find a fucking mobile”, Nero snapped, clearly angry at himself for not having one in hand at the moment. 

V sighed with impatience. He knew that Nero was doing the correct thing and that the proper authorities needed to take care of the situation, but he couldn’t help to feel annoyed for having to wait until Nero came back.

“She is dead. Right?”

The invoker looked at the kid through the opened door of the car when hearing his monotone comment. By basing on the boy’s words and his out of place serenity, it was evident that he had gone into shock after experiencing some kind of heavy trauma, and although Nero hadn’t had time to explain him what that kid was doing there, V could easily deduce what had happened. 

He knew he was not qualified to deal with the kid’s reaction in case of confirming his fears, so for the first time he contemplated the possibility of lying to provide a momentary hope, even if it would be eventually crushed anyway. V was trying to come up with the most suitable words when a loud sound of wheels skidding was heard at the other side of the mall, followed by a heavy impact, cries and shouts.

“What the hell?”, Griffon squawked while V rapidly closed the door of the car, keeping the boy inside.

V commanded Shadow to stay close to the vehicle to protect the boy in case demons approached, though it seemed that they were for now satisfied with the bodies which had been left inside the mall, because there wasn’t any underworld creature prowling outside. 

Such a theory was crushed when V, followed close by Griffon, turned the corner of the mall and saw an empusa queen stepping over a truck that had fallen to one of its sides due to the impact.

He stopped, knowing that he had seen that vehicle somewhere, but he did not realize where until he heard a shout of ‘ _HELP_!’ coming from it and he recognized the voice of the person who had cried. Also, he realized that the demon was getting ready to attack with her characteristic swinging movement, and considering her terrifying strength V estimated that just a couple of those attacks would be necessary so that the passengers inside were instantly killed, so they had to act fast.

“Griffon, distract her”, he rapidly commanded, causing the bird to immediately begin to throw electrical beams towards the empusa, attracting her attention so that she got away from the truck.

Making the most of the chance Griffon had given him, V managed to climb on the fallen vehicle and open the copilot door.

“Poet?”, Finn exclaimed from the copilot seat, looking half-terrified and half-confused while Mr. Jenkins, sitting on the driver seat, was still recovering from the provoked accident, “w-wait, what has happened to your tattoos?! Were their fake or— ?”

“Son, do you think this is the time to be asking that?”

Despite the situation, V showed the hint of a smile when hearing the man’s exasperated tone while helping Finn to remove the security belt (the kid’s hands were trembling too much to do it) so that he could abandon the truck.

“Stay close”, V ordered Finn while stepping further inside the truck, though for the way Finn had frozen while looking at Griffon dealing with the empusa some meters away, it didn’t look like the boy was planning to go anywhere.

“Definitely I misjudged you”, Mr. Jenkins said while V also removed his security belt, “remind me I pay you back half of the money I took from you.”

V chuckled a little breathlessly, maneuvering to be standing behind the seats to help Mr. Jenkins stand, which was difficult due to the reduced space. The old man was bleeding from a wound in his eyebrow, probably as a result of the lateral window breaking, but the injury was fortunately superficial.

“I will take your word, Captain”, he said ironically, causing the sailor to snort with the hint of a smile.

Thanks to Finn, who focused when seeing his grandfather’s head appear from the door, the captain also left the truck between huffs, followed close by V. Both Mr. Jenkins and Finn were observing the battle taking place between the demon and his familiar with confusion, until the kid spoke aloud what his grandfather was surely thinking as well.

“That bird...is he a friend?”

By then V had stepped on the ground as well, placing himself between them and the battle.

“He is”, he confirmed, signaling with his cane towards the place he had come from, “but we should move. I do not think he is able to last much longer— ”

“V, _get the hell out of here_!”

If there was a moment in which V hated himself for being right was that one, because Griffon had barely squawked the warning when the empusa delivered a hit to the crow that forced him to transform into a sphere in order to recover.

Without knowing where Nero was at the moment and not wanting to risk to make Shadow abandon the kid in the car, only two alternatives remained: to accelerate Griffon’s recovery with his presence, which was pretty risky considering that he would be completely in the open without any kind of protection, or to invoke Nightmare, with the consequence of him being unable to do it afterwards.

Considering the situation was pretty critical already, V decided to go for the second and began to extend his arm in horizontal to invoke his third familiar when the empusa was already turning towards them.

V was about to spell the words so that Nightmare landed over the massive insectoid when he heard Finn shout next to him and fall flat onto the ground. V quickly realized that a tendril that had been travelling through the ground in search of another victim had enclosed around one of Finn’s legs, with the intention of dragging him back to the mall.

“ _Son_!”

The invoker did not know from where he obtained the necessary reflexes to react in time. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or perhaps it was his inherited abilities that came from the older son of Sparda, and which allowed him to dig the sharp end of his cane on the root with all his strength, preventing the root from recoiling to throw Finn to a sure death. Fortunately, the end of the tentacle was less thick than the rest of its body, which allowed V to completely pierce it so that it released the boy.

V soon realized that saving Finn was going to have price that could be too elevated, because when shifting his body towards the young sailor to liberate him, he accidentally gave his back to the empusa queen approaching them, who did not hesitate in lunging against them with a growl. 

While feeling his heart beating faster for the impossibility of completely avoiding a wound that promised to be mortal, V turned around as quickly as possible with the intention of using his cane as an improvised shield, in a last attempt of reducing the harm as much as possible.

The pain he was expecting to experience never came. 

And when blood passed to cover his chest and face, it was not his own.

* * *

At the end, Nero was forced to literally threaten a man with his gun when this one was about to drive away in order to get a mobile, realizing soon that asking for one politely would be useless. He didn’t feel proud for it, but given the circumstances he thought it was fucking justified.

It took him a couple of attempts and redirections to contact the proper authorities, and more than a couple to explain the situation they were facing. He was about to smash the device against the floor after the person in the phone asked him if he was drunk when beginning to talk about demons attacking the place, but fortunately someone more competent replaced the annoying woman and finally agreed on sending help to the mall. 

“Fucking finally”, Nero snapped after hanging up, keeping the mobile with him before running back towards the car. He was pretty sure than no more than 10 minutes had passed since he left the car but when he came back V wasn’t there: just the kid, Shadow and a couple of empusas that were clearly trying to enter the vehicle in order to take the kid and which the panther was keeping at bay with his hedgehog attacks.

Nero cursed again, rapidly recovering his sword from the car’s trunk in order to slice those son of bitches as fast as possible. He briefly checked the back of the car and when seeing Ron sitting on the further side of the seats, terrified but definitely alive, he focused on Shadow, who was again in his feline form.

“Where is V?”

The panther didn’t need to find a way to let Nero know. The high-pitched growl that sounded at that moment from the other side of the building told the devil hunter everything he needed to know in order to begin to run towards the place. He was about to reach the corner, sword in hand and Overture beginning to charge, when a second cry that didn’t belong to a demon sounded, causing a reaction even more powerful in Nero.

He had heard that kind of cry before, back in Fortuna when the city was first attacked after Sanctus’ apparent death, when the Savior rose and people lost their homes and families as a result, and, finally, when he witnessed Credo’s death and his younger self let out a shout that was scarily similar to the one that had just sounded.

The fact that he more or less expected what he was going to find when turning the corner didn’t make it was less shocking, specially when he recognized the two figures involved in the scene. However, he didn’t have time to observe with too much attention at Mr. Jenkins severely injured and lying on the floor while being held by Finn’s trembling arms, since his attention was immediately drawn by V covered in blood and raised in the air by the claws of a queen empusa that looked about to eat him at any moment. 

With a howl Nero lunged against the creature, jumping over her in order to dig his sword on her back while shooting at her head from behind with his mechanical arm, effectively causing the demon to release V, who fell onto the ground. Nero emptied all Blue Rose’s bullets against the insectoid, who was barely able to keep up with his rage before Nero finally sliced his abdomen open, making blood splutter and stain his clothes. 

After the demon heavily felt on the ground, dead, Nero rapidly crouched next to V, who looked completely absent, his eyes looking in front of him without actually seeing.

“Hey, V”, Nero knelt down and took the man’s arms to shake him, “are you okay? Are you hurt?”

V finally reacted at that moment, his eyes gaining focus again while looking at him to spell the next words with a light confused tone.

“It’s not my blood.”

When hearing a new sob next to him, Nero finally remembered the first thing he saw. 

After releasing V, he rapidly crawled towards Finn and Mr. Jenkins. His eyes automatically went to the deep, fresh wound that covered most part of the old man’s chest, and whose hemorrhage Finn was trying to stop without success while pressing his hands against it.

“T-That thing attacked him”, Finn was stuttering as Nero rapidly removed his coat and sweater in order to press the second one against the wound, “I-I was about to be caught by a tentacle and V saved me b-but then that thing tried to hit V and— ”

Nero placed a hand on Finn’s shoulder firmly, recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack and deciding to do something before it was too late to avoid it. 

“Look, I know it’s hard, but you have to focus, okay? I need your help to make sure that your grandfather survives.”

Finn’s eyes opened wide and after drying his nose with the back of his hand the boy nodded effusively. 

“O-okay, what do I do?”

“We need to move him carefully to our car”, Nero explained, talking calmly despite the fact that his sweater was getting soaked in blood way too fast, indicating that the wound was even deeper than it looked “I guess the closest hospital is in Pitchbale?”, Finn nodded, “then we’ll come back there.”

While making sure to keep pressing the wound, Nero helped a half-unconscious Mr. Jenkins stand up with Finn’s help. V had stood up as well while Nero talked to Finn, observing the conversation in silence with a tense, unreadable expression that Nero couldn’t waste time in deciphering. 

Once they safely reached the car, Nero asked Ron to enter the copilot seat so that both Finn and V could sit with Mr. Jenkins on the back seats to check on him. Nero knew it wasn’t the boy’s fault to be slow at reacting, since the shock of having seen his mother die in front of him was still there, but still he really had to bite his tongue not to sound too impatient when it took him two attempts to get the kid to obey.

When everyone was inside with their belts on, he instructed both Finn and V to keep pressing the man’s wound while he finally started the car, beginning to turn the wheel to maneuver while innerly hoping that help was on his way to Pitchbale.

“Wait”, Nero stopped when he was about to step on the gas pedal, after hearing Mr. Jenkins talk with a weakened voice, “why can’t I go in the copilot seat?”

It took Nero a second to realize that, despite his state, the man was making a fucking joke, the realization making him exhale an incredulous chuckle while Finn half-sobbed and half-laughed, the only one who continued showing a grave expression being V.

“Sorry, old man, but you’ll have to wait until the next ride”, Nero answered in the same tone, causing Mr. Jenkins to snort softly and cough as Nero finally got them in the road. 

He had barely set the navigation back to Pitchbale again when V talked from behind, with an utter incredulous tone that Nero had never heard him use.

“Why? Why did you step in?”

Nero looked at Mr. Jenkins and V through the rearview mirror, in time to catch the old man offering V a way too calm smile.

“You saved my grandson. I had to pay it back.”

It didn’t go unnoticed by Nero the way V gritted his teeth, neither the way he opened his mouth surely to argue back against such a statement. However, before the invoker could talk, Finn beat to it with a voice that bordered sounded hysterical.

“Don’t talk as if you were to die, sir!”, Finn gulped loudly, trying to talk more calmly without success, “you’re going to make it, okay? You have to see me become a proper sailor! You have to be there in the ceremony to give me my official cap, like you did with the other guys! You promised you’d be there so you have to do it!”

Mr. Jenkins chuckled tiredly, settling a hand over the one the kid had against his chest.

“I’ll be there, son. One way or another, I’ll be there.”

Nero found himself gulping when hearing the uncharacteristic fond tone that Mr. Jenkins used, before feeling V’s eyes fixed on him through the rearview window. He didn’t dare to return the gaze. He was afraid of finding in them a certainty that he didn’t want to accept yet, so he fixed his eyes on the road instead.

According to the GPS, the hospital was 25 minutes away. He made sure to make it in 10.

* * *

By when they reached Pitchbale, some of the streets were already infested by demons, and tree roots were trying to take over the city. During the short trip Nero had turned on they radio and they had learned that the attack in the mall and in the city hadn’t been the only ones, but that more incidents like that one had spread around the surrounding cities. Also, only the locale police had been deployed to the fishing village, probably because the Government didn’t have enough resources to attend all the attacks and had given priority to protect the biggest cities, where the number of casualties could be potentially higher. 

V gritted his teeth with frustration and anger, looking through the car window as Nero drove across the city. He observed the improvised barricades that the police and the residents were creating in an attempt to push the demons back, the half-destroyed inn that they had left mere hours ago, the people trying to defend themselves and protect each other while looking for shelter. 

It was Red Grave all over again. 

However, the difference with regards the previous time that the roots attacked was that, at that moment, they didn’t know what they were facing. They had been unaware of the power Urizen withheld, and consequently there was no way that they could have predicted that Red Grave was going to become a provisional ghost town of people recluding themselves in their homes, too afraid to leave and being caught by one of those deadly tendrils. 

But this...This could have been avoided.

If he had been faster to discover what that tree was and its purpose, if he hadn’t wasted so much unnecessary time, if he had been stronger, nothing like that would have happened. 

V was momentarily pushed away from his dark thoughts when Nero rapidly parked the car in front of the hospital, though it would be more suitable to say that he simply stopped the car next to the others that were practically blocking the entrance. He opened the door by his side in order to take Mr. Jenkins out of the car with Finn’s help. He managed to do so, and also to make the pale, delirious man stand, but he immediately realized that dragging the about to collapse captain inside was going to be difficult for him.

Nero noticed it and approached them the moment he left the car.

“I’ll take care of it. You watch over Ron.”

For the first time, it didn’t even occur to V to protest for Nero’s commanding tone. While Nero and Finn began to guide Mr. Jenkins inside, he approached the copilot seat and opened the door, silently offering the now mute kid a hand that this one immediately took to follow inside the hospital.

The place was surrounded by people who was injured, scared and desperate to get medical attention, and it was evident that when building the hospital no one had expected that, someday, it would be necessary to assist so many people at the same time, because improvised stretchers had been created in the corridors and doctors and nurses were going from one side to the other trying to treat as many people as possible. 

Among the healthcare professionals, there was a doctor who immediately caught not just V but also Nero’s attention.

“Zaira!”

The woman, who was giving indications to other nurses, turned around when hearing her name being called loudly by Nero. Almost immediately, the confusion that appeared in her face was replaced by a mask of professional composure when seeing Mr. Jenkins.

“What’s happened?”, she asked when she hadn’t reached them yet.

“He was attacked by one of those monsters”, Finn rapidly said, worry dripping from each one of his words.

Zaira removed carefully the clothing from the old man’s chest for a moment, and even if her expression didn’t change V noticed the imperceptible gulp she uselessly tried to hide, which showed she was more worried than she was letting show.

“Okay, I have to attend him right now”, she then addressed the sailor, “hey, Ronald. Stay with me, alright?”

“Don’t worry, not going anywhere”, the man sluggishly said while they were led inside a surgery room where another two patients were. They were suffering from severe wounds that made the smaller boy gasp and hide his face against V’s stomach not to watch, causing him to absentmindedly place a hand on the kid’s head, then unconscious action managing to calm him down a little even if his mind was far, far away from there.

“Is he going to be okay?”, Finn asked with a thin voice while Zaira guided everyone out of the room, once Mr. Jenkins was already lying on the stretcher with two nurses getting him ready for surgery.

“I’ll do my best so that he is.”

Despite her obvious hurry, Zaira took a moment to offer Finn a reassuring smile that made the young sailor gulp and nod. At that moment the doctor fixed her eyes on V before pointing at Ron with her eyes.

“Other children who have got lost are in the cafeteria. You can take him there. He will be in good hands.”

After Nero thanked the woman and after Finn announced he would be waiting for his grandfather to recover, V accompanied Nero to leave Ron with the other children. It still took him some detours to be able to reach the designated area, and by when the child had been safely taken there, V had already reached a conclusion about what their next step was going to be.

“Fuck, this is insane”, Nero exhaled when they were outside the hospital again, “what the hell is happening? Do you think that maybe Urizen has resurrected already?”

V shook his head, forcing himself to show a serenity he wasn’t actually feeling.

“If that was the case, the result would have been even worse”, Nero’s expression showed that he doubted such a thing could be possible, so V kept talking, “but you have a point. Perhaps we have less time than what I had predicted.”

Nero snorted.

“More bad news then. Awesome”, Nero said sarcastically, reached for his sword then, beginning to charge it before signaling with his head towards one of the streets, “come on, let’s fix this mess first.”

But V didn’t move, which made Nero stop in his tracks and look at him with confusion.

“Go ahead without me. There is something I have to take care of first.”

Nero frowned even more, fully facing V.

“And that something is…?”

V suppressed the urge of clicking his tongue, thinking he had been naive by hoping that Nero would simply leave without questioning his motives.

“I need to find the source of these attacks. They are too coordinated, which usually betrays the presence of a superior demon commanding the lesser ones. We have to find him and kill him.”

Nero nodded. 

“Yeah, it has sense. I’m going with you then.”

“No.”

Nero, who had been about to come back with him, stopped again and looked at V in disbelief when hearing his outright refusal.

“Why?”, the boy half-closed his eyes, “look, if this is because of our previous fight, I don’t think this is the time for— ”

“The whole city is under attack, Nero”, V interrupted him with a tone that didn’t leave room for discussion, “we don’t know if more reinforcements are on their way, but for now it is clear the police can’t handle it alone. They need you here.”

“Okay, then why don’t you help me finish with these bitches sooner so that we can _both_ go?”

“Because until the source is not destroyed, demons will not stop coming”, impatience was beginning to show in his voice, and Nero noticed it because the boy clenched his jaw, “If you come with me, we’ll be leaving these people to their luck. The only solution is separating to minimize the casualties.”

“But in that case wouldn’t it have more sense than I go to the source? Because if, as you say, there is a powerful demon there, _I_ am the one who should kick his ass.”

“Very well, and how do you plan to find him? Shadow is the only one who can detect demonic power and filter it to find the perpetrator, so I go. _Alone_.”

V was convinced that his last argument would be definitive, but he had underestimated Nero’s stubbornness because the boy shook his head negatively.

“No. I’m going with you.”

The invoker gritted his teeth, irritation invading him for Nero’s incapacity of trusting him. Though well, he himself had claimed before that he did not trust the boy either, so he was stupid for thinking it would be the other way around.

However, just when V was seriously considering the option to use his familiars against Nero despite his promise of not doing such a thing again, the lower part of a nearby building collapsed and some antenoras began to attack the police officers who had been trying to secure the street barricade. 

Nero’s incapacity _not_ to jump into danger to help someone in need made him immediately assist the officers, which allowed V to make the most of the boy’s attention being diverted in order to take his leave, by stepping on Shadow’s trail to rapidly abandon the area. 

By when he heard Nero shout his name in frustration, he was far enough so that the boy was unable to catch him.

It took Shadow almost a complete hour to find the trace of a demonic power which differed enough from the others and which besides was way more powerful, confirming V’s suspicions of a mastermind commanding the lackeys that prowled around Pitchbale. The search took them to an apparently abandoned [ cave ](https://parksaustralia.gov.au/booderee/files/cave-beach-t.jpg) in one of the inhabited beaches close to the village. When they were close enough V also invoked Griffon, who had agreed not to manifest so that V could save all the possible energy for the confrontation that would follow.

“V, are you sure this is a good idea?”

The invoker sighed while continuing approaching the cave.

“I’m afraid that, good or not, we did not have many other options.”

“Yes, you had”, Griffon protested as V placed a hand against the rocked walls to better walk inside the cave, “you could have allowed the kid to accompany you.”

“By doing that the city would have been condemned.”

“Well, but if _you_ lose your life the whole world will be.”

“Then you just have to be sure that I don’t die.”

When V was about to step inside, Griffon began to flap his wings in front of him, stopping his advances.

“V, please. This risk is unnecessary, and you know it. Why are you doing it?”

V gulped, averting his eyes while Shadow appeared in his panther form again in front of him, expectant to hear his answer as well. If, as usual, Griffon had simply protested or behaved in his usually annoying way, perhaps he would have tried to come up with a plausible excuse to be left alone. But Griffon’s tone at that moment had sounded unmistakable worried, and after seeing how his familiars genuinely looked afraid for what could happen to him, he exhaled a long sigh and opted to be sincere while facing them.

“Because I’ve seen this already. And although at that moment _he_ couldn’t stop it, now I will.”

V didn’t need to add anything else so that his familiars understood what he meant:

The terror in the people’s expressions, the worry for their loved ones perhaps not being able to make it, the anguished shouts and cries surrounding the until then peaceful town. Such images of war and suffering were present in most part of V’s memories and frequently appeared in his nightmares, and although in all of them he simply witnessed everything happening as a mere observer, it was different now. 

It _had_ to be.

“No, buddy”, Griffon suddenly intervened again, “you’re not alone in this so _we_ will.”

V exhaled a small surprised chuckle when Shadow and Griffon situated on either side of him, getting ready for the battle.

“It was a matter of speaking”, he ironically said, though thanks to his familiars’ support the doubts that had tried to eat him up had vanished. 

It did not take them much to find the demon who was behind the attacks in Pitchbale and the mall: an angelo knight who was standing next to particularly big pulsating root while surrounded for almost a dozen of other lesser demons, who were apparently waiting for his orders and which began to growl at the same time while focusing on them after detecting his presence.

V gritted his teeth until his jaw hurt when seeing the angelo adopting a fighting stance with his sword with the clear intention of attacking. He felt a piercing pain settling in his head, the presence of that too familiar humanoid demon waking hidden memories that _he_ had tried to forget several times without success.

However, as the demons began to slowly approach, V showed no hesitation when raising his hand and clasping his fingers in order to invoke Nightmare, beginning to command his three familiars with determination while focusing on keeping the memories wanting to resurface in the back of his mind.

 

_Nelo observed from above at the human kneeling at his feet, at the tormented expression of his face as demons began to run rampant in the isolated city they had been ordered to scavenge and destroy afterwards._

_As usual, Mundus had not spared too many details about why such an apparent irrelevant city had to be involved in such a massacre, but Nelo had learnt soon that it was not recommendable to formulate too many questions to the Prince of Darkness._

 

“Fry.”

 

_Since he had been recruited, Nelo had been the only angelo dispatched to that kind of missions, which was curious to say the least, considering that in order to destroy and burn a city to ashes his presence was mostly irrelevant._

_Normally, angelos were deployed to more complicated missions due to their intelligence, which was clearly superior than other lesser demons and which allowed them to come up with more difficult battle strategies that went beyond merely obliterating until nothing remained standing._

_However, Nelo had a theory about why Mundus insisted to send him to missions in which, most part of the times, his role simply consisted of making sure that the other demons did not get too carried away by destroying more than they were ordered to._

 

“Crush ‘em.”

 

_Mundus wanted him to watch; wanted him to observe people, innocent people, suffering and dying, no questions allowed; wanted him to learn not to waste time thinking why such a thing was necessary, and for which purpose._

_Wanted him not to falter when people directly begged to him, and by making sure that he was the only demon whose appearance was the most humanoid, such a thing was a guarantee._

_Because when people was thrown into chaos like that they always searched for something familiar that provided comfort, and among all the creatures that right now were shattering their normal lives into pieces, he was their best option to try to come from that alive._

_They were naive enough to think that._

 

“Blast.”

 

_Nelo could not understand the man’s sobbing words anymore. The noise of the flames engulfing the place and the slicing sound of claws and fangs piercing into human flesh were muting the man’s pleas._

_However, it was evident what the man was asking for. The way he was slamming a fisted hand against his own chest while uselessly trying to cover for his wife and son, also kneeling behind him, made evident he was uselessly trying to be the only one killed so that his family could be spared._

_He was asking for mercy._

_Mercy that Nelo had been ordered not to grant under any circumstances._

 

“Slice ‘em.”

 

_The Knight grabbed his sword with more force when feeling those past memories he had the order of never allowing to come afloat fighting within him._

_They were struggling to break free once again after witnessing that kid who could not be older than 8 years-old holding for his mother, and the way the woman, though obviously scared, didn’t stop muttering things into her son’s ear, surely trying to make him believe everything was going to be okay._

_Nelo was glad of the helmet covering his face so that those humans could not see the hesitation that his eyes showed for a moment, but he overcame that moment of debility._

 

“Ascend.”

 

_He knew what the price to pay would be in case of letting that former self, that refused to vanish completely, win over his current one._

_He knew what the punishment Mundus would impose on him._

_He knew he did not want to go through that again._

_So he pushed his last doubts aside, and when some lesser demons approached him, waiting for his orders after acknowledging his superiority in strength and rank, Nelo raised his sword and spelled three words with all the firmness he could gather:_

 

“ **_Eradicate them all_ ** _._ ”

 

* * *

Nero immediately knew when V had managed to kill that ‘source’ the man had mentioned before, because the appearance of demons in the streets began to reduce until, at some point, they simply stopped coming. However, despite the peace the city was granted once again, Nero’s distress didn’t vanish, because he had no fucking idea where V was.  

During the hour or so that followed the calm after the storm, Nero managed not to worry much. However, when almost two hours had passed since the last demon he sliced, Nero began to seriously worry, as more and more negative thoughts began to invade his mind: 

What if V had been severely injured and couldn’t come back on his own? 

What if he was dying right now after being too reckless in battle? 

And the thing that bothered Nero the most despite the fact that the previous two alternatives were bad enough already: what if, because of their fight, V was fine but had decided to leave him behind?

The worst part was that Nero didn’t know where to begin to search, not to mention that with the city practically in ruins and with people still needing help, he still needed to verify that the place was safe while helping the injured ones to reach the hospital. Besides, as much as he had hated certain aspects of the Order, there were certain things that he had never forgotten from his times as a Knight, and in that situation it was evident that the first thing to do was to protect and assist the most in need.

V didn’t enter that category. The man could be obsessed with not being strong enough, but it was evident that he had more chances to survive than any of the civilians Nero had helped carry to the hospital. Nero knew that, and he knew he was doing the correct thing, the only thing he could do at the moment. But damn, as pointless as it was to go running around without even having a lead to follow, the temptation of dropping everything to look every nook and cranny of the city to find V was too big, and he had to fight against it several times while helping the civilians.

By when Nero had finally time to sit in the floor of the hospital, next to Finn who threatened to fall asleep out of tiredness and stress, night had already fallen, and it was past midnight when the door of the surgery room where Mr. Jenkins was being operated opened, revealing Zaira at the other side.

Finn raised to his feet instantly, beating Nero to it. The boy looked at the doctor with his expectant eyes opened wide, waiting for the good news to come, but a soft, negative shook of head was the only thing they obtained from the young, exhausted doctor, followed by a quiet ‘ _I’m sorry_ ’ that made Finn be about to fall to the floor again if Nero hadn’t been there to grab him. 

Enclosing an arm around the boy’s shaking shoulders Nero slid towards the floor again with the trembling kid, contenting himself with placing a firm hand on the boy’s shoulder as Finn flexed his legs against his chest and buried his face on his knees to let his sorrow out. Offering silent support was the only thing Nero could do after all, since he perfectly knew how empty words could be at the moment.

Nero looked up at Zaira again, catching the woman biting her bottom lip while still managing to keep the composure even if the loss had also affected her, since by basing on her interactions with the man it was evident that they had been close. 

That woman was surely tough. No doubt she had caught V’s interest.

“Oh my god _..._ ”

At that moment, several gasps of surprise and fear sounded in the corridor, which caused Nero to immediately stand up again in alert again while reaching for his gun.

He never got to extract it, his eyes opening wide when seeing _V_ walking with difficulty through the corridor by leaning on his cane. Now he understood the way people was staring at the invoker: his clothes were practically covered in blood, and even if it was evident that V had tried to remove the stains from his skin, some still remained, making it difficult to distinguish if that blood was his or from his enemies. 

Ignoring all the looks V approached them until a couple of meters separated him from Nero. The invoker looked briefly, _too_ briefly, at him before his eyes were dragged to Finn’s curled figure. Nero noticed V gritting his teeth before his eyes shifted to Zaira, showing a guilty expression that indicated the invoker had understood what had happened.

While Nero was trying to get a hold on how _he_ felt at that moment, the doctor approached the invoker.

“I don’t see any serious wounds, just scratches here and there”, Zaira surprised Nero by looking at him after her quick but efficient examination, “could you take care of him? I’m afraid I have my hands full right now.”

Nero nodded, causing the woman to offer him a grateful smile before turning to V once again. The woman nodded once softly towards the invoker (in a rather cold way of saying goodbye for someone who had slept with him, Nero couldn’t help to think despite the circumstances), before kneeling next to Finn. Nero had time to see Zaira hugging Finn tightly before he had to practically drag V out of there by grabbing his arm.

With every step they took towards the now abandoned inn, the relief of seeing V alive though barely holding up was slowly being replaced by anger, a feeling that was potentiated when they climbed up the broken stairs to stop in front of the first door they saw and V finally opened his mouth to speak.

“I can take care from here.”

Nero refrained himself from grabbing V’s arm with more force when this one tried to get himself free from it.

“Yeah, well, you heard the doctor. _I_ have to take care of you.”

His words contrasted with the way he broke the door opened with a brusque kick, and how he kept dragging V towards the bathroom. It was so [ small ](https://www.camperidea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/186c44d36eddb0159d9252e4d94daa34--camper-interior-truck-campers-736x640.jpg) that two people barely fit inside, but still Nero managed to enter them both. V needed an urgent shower because he stenched to blood and monster fluids, but it was evident that the invoker would have difficulties in undressing himself. Nero had noticed the way V’s expression twisted in pain when doing certain movements, confirming his theory of the man having exceeded himself in battle. 

Nero had just leaned V against the sink and was reaching for the laces of V’s corset to begin loosening them when V’s fingers enclosed around both of his wrists with a deathly grip.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Nero’s thoughts about his anger being irrational vanished when detecting fucking _suspicion_ in V’s voice, accompanied by something else he couldn’t quite read.

“I don’t know, helping?”

V tsked and tried to push Nero aside. He hadn’t the strength to do it though, but the fact that the invoker had tried to do so when Nero had been fucking worried about him the whole time made his blood begin to boil.

“Well, if ‘helping’ involves you undressing me I would gladly prefer to shower fully dressed.”

V’s sarcastic comment was the last straw for Nero.

“As you wish.”

Nero didn’t feel guilty in the least when pushing V towards the narrow shower violently, reaching for the water tap immediately after in order to snap it open. He had time to see V’s eyes opening more in stupor before water began to cascade down on the invoker, drenching him.

V tried to leave but Nero was faster and in better condition, so he effortlessly pressed V back against the tiles while rapidly reaching for the shower head. Nero turned it on at his maximum power. Without any consideration he pointed at V’s face, forcing the man to cover his face with his forearm in order to avoid the water jet addressed to his face. 

After some seconds Nero finally pointed at the rest of his body, allowing V to throw a harsh glare at him with his damp hair sticking to his face.

“Are you out of your damn mind?”, V hissed, cursing for probably the first time since Nero knew him, but the devil hunter didn’t notice it, being busy throwing the shower head towards the ground without any care to the mess forming in the bathroom.

“No, V, are _you_ out of your damn mind?”, he snapped, “what the hell were you thinking to go to kill those bastards alone?”

V talked next with a cold, sarcastic tone that didn’t distract Nero from the fact that the invoker was leaning his full weight against the wall, probably because he was unable to keep standing otherwise.

“As far as I know I managed to stop them, so I don’t know what the problem is.”

“Oh, so you don’t know? Well, maybe you should fucking look at you to discover it.”

“I do. And I am alive, am I not?”

“Yeah, but barely”, Nero snarled, “you promised you would depend on me in battles from now on, so why the fuck didn’t you let me go with you?”

V answered almost immediately. _Almost_. And that extremely brief moment of hesitation was sufficient to put Nero in alert.

“I told you already. Your help was clearly more necessary here, so I simply considered that it was wiser to split in order to— ”

Nero took a step towards V until he was practically caging him against the wall, making the invoker tense automatically because due to their proximity, his blue eyes were the only thing he could look at, and right now they were showing he wasn’t willing to accept any bullshit.

“Do you think I’m stupid, V?”

The way V’s eyes opened more indicated he had recognized those words. He had said them hours ago after all, when claiming that he knew Nero was lying, that there was something wrong.

V took a deep breath, averting his eyes to the side for some long seconds before finally talking with a slightly defeated tone, as if not finding the strength to keep lying anymore. 

“I had to take care of it alone.”

Nero frowned confused.

“Why?”

The silence that followed was only interrupted with the sound of the water flooding the floor, but neither Nero or V noticed it, the first being busy fixing his gaze on the invoker while the second finally made up his mind to talk again.

“Because it is my fault.”

It was the first time that Nero heard such intense regret in someone else’s voice, and the fact that it came from V, from someone who was always trying to keep his feelings in check and his facade of not caring much about anything, just made that the effect was more shocking.

“What the hell are you saying?”, Nero looked at V without understanding, “unless you have ordered those damn demons to attack us I doubt it is your fault—”

“It is.”

V’s cutting words mixed with the harshness and frustration that shined in the invoker’s green eyes when looking at Nero again made this one shut up instantly while V kept speaking.

“I allowed it to happen. Urizen’s appearance, that man who died today for saving me, the whole town being destroyed together with Red Grave and all those other towns, all the lives that were lost…”, V exhaled a humorless chuckle, lowering his eyes towards the ground between them, “...is all because of me. If I had been stronger then, if my will had not been so feeble, _everything_ could have been avoided. So even if it was only once, I wanted to do _something_ to prevent it myself. And I had to do it on my own. Because it had nothing to do with you.” 

Nero gulped. He’d never thought that there would be a day in which he would miss V’s high and mighty attitude. But now, while hearing V saying all that in such a resentful voice, he did. 

Honestly, there were a lot of things he hadn’t understood from V’s speech. He still didn’t know what the relation between Urizen and V was, or why V blamed him so much for the destructions of many cities when, as far as he knew, the invoker had fought as hard as him to prevent those incidents. As usual, V kept having that aura of mystery around him that Nero thought it would be difficult to fully decipher.

However, there was something that he had definitely understood from the invoker’s words. 

Something that he was going to clarify right then and there.

“Nothing to do with me?”, Nero repeated, grabbing both of V’s arms and making this one look at him again, startled, “of course it has, you idiot.”

And like that, the distance between them disappeared. 

* * *

When V suddenly felt his body being dragged and pressed against Nero, for a moment he thought that he had finally lost consciousness and he was having a dream that he would clearly refuse to think about when finally waking up.

However, the warm feeling of the boy’s body against his colder one and the rhythmic sound of the devil hunter’s slightly fast heartbeat against his own chest convinced him that he was not imagining anything.

Nero was really hugging him.

It was strange. In the memories V held of Vergil, the man had always avoided that kind of displays of affection, especially when sleeping with his partners, where his main objective was to achieve a momentary release. After all, Vergil had always hated being trapped, and feelings were the worst kind of chain.

But at that moment V didn’t feel trapped, but just the contrary. Because the unfamiliar feeling of a couple of strong arms enclosing around him wasn’t disgusting as he thought it’d be, or suffocating. It felt like something he could get used to. It felt...nice. So after winning over his initial hesitation V also returned it, slowly separating his arms from the sides of his tense body in order to enclose them around Nero’s middle back.

V wasn’t sure how much time they stood there, simply allowing themselves to share a brief moment of intimacy that would have been unthinkable some days ago, hours even. He just knew that, when Nero spoke again, the boy’s embrace got a little tighter, as if wanting to make sure V wasn’t going anywhere until he finished speaking.

“We are together in this. We both decided to do this trip to kick that bastard’s ass. We both decided to work together, so next time you feel like risking yourself to be the fucking hero of the day, I’ll be there too. Because like hell if you are going to keep all the merit for yourself, you hear me?”

V felt his heart skip a beat when hearing Nero’s words, suddenly understanding something.

Before, when the boy had insisted in accompanying him, V had thought that the devil hunter did not trust him enough to let him go on his own, but he had been mistaken. The way Nero’s voice sounded at that moment, relieved but on the brink of breaking, did not leave space for doubts: 

Nero had been worried for him. Nero had been afraid of losing him. Nero _really_ cared about him. 

And that, V wasn’t expecting it. 

For him there was no middle ground, so even if in the past he had believed to detect certain worry coming from the boy towards his well being, when seeing the way Nero behaved with his fiancée he had automatically assumed that there was only space for one person to care about, that probably he had expected too much of someone whose heart was already taken. 

But he had been wrong, because even it was evident that Nero loved Kyrie, it was also obvious that the boy cared about him.

The same way that he cared about Nero. 

He could try to deny it, to justify it, to mask it, but it was useless. Wanting it or not, Nero now had a place in his mind and heart, and the only thing he could do was to accept it. Because as much as sometimes he would like to go back to the past to prevent such a dangerous thing from happening, time travel wasn’t among his abilities. He had allowed himself to lower his barriers with Nero way more times than he should, and now it was too late. 

“I think your memory is failing you, Nero”, V commented then with resigned acceptance, “because as far as I know, I was forced to ‘kick your ass’ to convince you to join me.”

The way Nero laughed while still hugging V allowed this one to feel the boy’s chest softly rumbling against his own. 

“I’m not the one who is about to faint so _you_ are surely the one mixing things”, Nero teased back while finally separating, the smile that was on the boy’s face making V have to suppress one on his own.

A new silence fell between them, but unlike the ones they had shared that morning, this time it was exempt of all tension and awkwardness. It was comfortable once again, as if with that improvised, unexpected hug they had finally conveyed something that up till then they hadn’t dared to put into words. 

“Okay, it looks like someone could use some rest”, Nero joked when V’s eyelids began to feel heavy once again, “you need help with something before I go back to patrol?”

V may be tired, but he had enough energy to look at Nero with irony.

“Well, considering your caretaker abilities, I would very much prefer to be left on my own, thank you.”

Nero snorted, taking the shower head (who was still on, by the way) to handle it to V.

“Hey now, you were asking for it for being such a jerk—”

Nero’s sentence ended with a garbled sound when without changing his expression V pointed the shower head at his face, soaking him. The invoker smiled innocently while Nero simply blinked twice with an utterly resigned expression.

“I just wanted to make sure you were completely awaken for the patrol.”

Nero exhaled a long sigh, grabbing the extreme of his t-shirt to wrinkle it, causing V’s eyes to stop momentarily in his partly exposed abs before remembering that appreciating the boy’s muscles was probably inadequate in that situation. Probably in _any_ situation, but he was too tired to think too deeply about it.

“Thanks, I needed it”, Nero said ironically while approaching the door, but his tone was slightly serious when talking again, “you sure you’ll be okay?”

Probably if he was in top condition V would roll his eyes, protesting for Nero’s excess of concern, but at that moment he simply nodded with a smile.

“I will. See you tomorrow, Nero.”

The devil hunter smiled, returning the nod.

“Rest well, V.”

V took a proper though quick shower before entering the bed without any clothes, since they would need a thorough clean up before he was able to use them again. 

He knew that the situation surrounding them was more difficult than they had predicted; that there were still many things that they had to learn about that tree that Urizen seemed to command; that they had to learn the reason why those attacks had taken place in that precise day; that when waking up the guilt when learning about the consequences of such attacks would come back to him at full force.

And, the same way, V knew that there were still certain pending things he had to figure out about Nero, concretely about certain feelings he sometimes experienced towards the boy that he couldn't fully comprehend yet.

However, at least for that night, V allowed himself to be selfish enough not to think too much about it, deciding that all those matters could wait until the next morning. 

Right then, the only thing V wanted was to rest with the knowledge that everything was back to normal between Nero and him. Because at that moment, that was the only thing that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sorry if someone thought Nero was going for the kiss, but hey, they hugged! ^^U  
> I warned you they wouldn't be angry for much longer :')  
> And they have finally admitted to care about each other!! So they are closeeeeer to finally figure out how much exactly :)


	17. (June 1) - Yes, you were

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, Nero's POV beats V's. It was time for him to begin to realize certain things :P

**_June 1 - 3:45 p.m._ **

“ _...it is estimated that the inexplicable attacks that took place in the morning of 30 May in the cities surrounding Red Grave have provoked the death of hundreds of people, while the sum of civilians reported injured or missing is closer to one thousand. For now the Government has refused to make any official announcements about what the cause of such tragic incidents could be, giving rise to multiple theories. While some defend that terrorist may be behind this wave of indiscriminate violence, rumors about supernatural creatures being at fault are becoming more and more frequent between the public—_ ”

Nero turned the radio off, his eyes shifting momentarily to V dozing off in the copilot seat. The invoker had leaned an elbow on the car window and his temple on his knuckles, in a posture that Nero would think it was rather uncomfortable if it wasn’t for V’s even breathing, which proved that for once it seemed that the invoker was enjoying a relatively peaceful sleep.

Not that Nero was surprised. The man had to be really exhausted, because even if there hadn’t been any more attacks after V managed to defeat the source, the previous day and that same morning they had barely rested.

After their ‘shower moment’ (Nero’s mind insisted on referring to it like that despite feeling the misleading connotations it carried) he had been patrolling the streets for a couple of hours before deciding that he probably should call it a day as well, when he was about to bump into a streetlight after having been walking half-asleep during the past 5 minutes.

V was deep asleep in one of the inn’s beds when he came back. The sheets covered the invoker practically from head to toe, but Nero noticed the invoker’s clothes at the feet of the bed. Since the inn laundry room was still operative, he gathered the invoker’s garments and put them together with his own upper clothes in one of the machines, practically wasting all the available detergent to make sure all the stains were gone. 

To kill time until the washing finished in order to put the dryer, Nero took a shower and with a towel around his body he abandoned the room with the intention of contacting Kyrie, making the most of the remaining battery of the mobile he had ‘borrowed’ before the device died completely.

In the present, Nero sighed and took the next exit in the road when one of the signs announced a gas station, deciding to make a short stop to refuel and also to check if there was a public phone there. Because if there was, probably he should call Kyrie again since their last talk had eventually been rather bittersweet.

It had been past 2 a.m. when Nero called her. At the time, the news about the demons having attacked several towns had already spread, and despite the late hour the woman was still awake, deathly worried while waiting to receive news from him. 

Nero immediately assured her that they both were fine and that they only needed to rest before continuing. Normally, Kyrie calmed down when detecting he was telling the truth, thing that Nero always did despite her occasional doubts because in case of discovering he was lying, she would surely worry even more during his subsequent missions, and he didn’t want that.

However, this time Nero was surprised when despite his reassurances, Kyrie kept insisting that he should return to Fortuna. 

 

“Kyrie, I’ve told you we’re fine”, Nero had said for what it surely was the fifth time, “yeah, we’re tired and V almost collapsed because the stubborn bastard went on his own, but we are both okay, I swear.”

“ _I don’t care, Nero_ . _I just want you to come home. In less than a week you’ve been about to die twice. Since this trip began you haven’t stopped putting yourself at risk!_ ”

“At risk?”, Nero exhaled a surprised laugh, “Kyrie, I kill demons for a living, so of course that I’m going to be in danger. That’s nothing new.”

“ _Yes, but it’s not the same._ ”

“Why not?”

“ _Because the other times it was for a motive!”,_ Nero shut up when Kyrie raised her voice with hysterism, “ _but now you’re risking yourself for a trip that maybe has no sense at all!”_

Nero frowned at that moment, the phone that wasn’t sustaining the phone crossing across his chest.

“No sense at all? What do you mean?”

He heard Kyrie exhale a trembling sigh at the other side, as if calming herself before talking, though her voice kept sounding trembling.

“ _You said the trip would help you get stronger...”_

 _“_ And it has”, Nero interrupted, perhaps a little too brusquely because Kyrie’s unexpected doubts had bothered him more than he expected, “I’m getting stronger. Yesterday I killed a damn empusa queen in less than a minute when days ago I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

“ _Yes, but you also said that you’d find a way to defeat that demon”_ , Kyrie insisted, “ _that’s why you’ve been travelling all this time. But it’s been two weeks already and yesterday you told me you hadn’t found anything about him.”_

“Yet”, Nero realized he had sounded too brusque so he took a deep breath before talking again, “I told you we hadn’t found anything _yet_ , but we are close, Kyrie.”

“ _But how can you be so sure of that?_ ”

“Because V says so.”

The silence that followed was deafening, and when Kyrie talked again her tone had a tinge of disappointment that Nero had never detected in her voice before.

“ _And you believe him?_ ”

“Yes”, there was no hesitation in Nero’s voice when answering, and although he thought that such a security would reassure Kyrie, it seemed to cause the opposite effect.

“ _And what if he is wrong? What if you are travelling for nothing?_ ”

Nero exhaled a long sigh and leaned against the wall of the corridor, scratching the back of his head.

“Okay, and what do you suggest then?”, he eventually said, not aware that his tone didn’t sound as calm as he would like, “that we give up? Is that what you’re saying?”

“ _No, Nero, I haven’t said that”,_ Kyrie said, her tone sounding a little trembling next, which made Nero feel immediately guilty for having been so brusque, “ _I_ — _I’m only trying to understand why you risk yourself so much following someone you didn’t even like in the first place.”_

Nero had gulped then, sneaking his head in the room to look at V in the precise moment in which the invoker was shifting position in bed to curl on his side. He observed V, remembering how relieved he had felt when verifying that the man was fine, that he hadn’t died. 

That he hadn’t left. 

“ _Nero?_ ”

When being called, Nero leaned against the wall again. He remained silent until he was sure about what he was going to say, because he felt that, this time, he _really_ could screw it up badly if he didn’t choose his words carefully.

“Yeah, I hated him at first, but it’s not like that anymore. And yeah, we still have our differences sometimes, but still I _know_ I can trust him, the same as I feel he’s right when saying we’re gonna find something”, he sighed, leaning the back of his head against the wall with a soft thumping sound, “so I’m sorry, Kyrie, really. But I can’t just quit. I can’t simply leave him alone.”

A long pause followed his words, and when Kyrie talked again, her tone sounded excessively serene.

“ _You can’t or you don’t want to?_ ”

Nero frowned, not sure about which of his last two claims Kyrie was referring to, but before he could ask about it Kyrie talked again, her tone indicating she regretted making such a question.

“ _Nevermind. I...I understand, Nero”,_ but he immediately knew she didn’t, he knew her well enough to know that and the realization made his heart sink, “ _please, take care of yourself, alright? I love you._ ”

Nero barely had time to say ‘I love you’ back before she hanged up, guilt spreading within him when suspecting that Kyrie had finished the call so quickly because she was probably about to cry. 

 

At that moment Nero stopped in front of the small gas station. V was still sleeping, and since the stop would be quick, he decided to let him be while carefully exiting the car. After refueling, he made a quick visit to the station small [shop](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ca/dc/9a/cadc9ab9336980dafc97bf518eb17724.jpg). They already had supplies for the journey but still he bought a couple of extra things for the rest of the day. 

The TV hanging from the wall behind the counter was on, showing the news that were obviously talking about the demons attacks. Nero gritted his teeth while watching the images of the destruction of other small towns that hadn’t been lucky enough to count with help in time. His attention was still on the screen when the owner of the shop exited from the backshop to attend him.

“Terrible, isn’t it?”, the woman said with a saddened tone, noticing where Nero’s attention was, “some people say it’s the first signal announcing the Apocalypse.”

Nero was about to refute the statement when realizing that perhaps people weren’t that wrong when claiming that. After all, if Urizen had been able to cause such a mess without having reached his full power yet, who knew what he could do when achieving it.

But they wouldn’t let that happen. They would stop him, no matter the cost.

“10.65$, hon”, the woman said then with an amicable tone, waking Nero up from his thoughts, “do you need something else?”

Nero noticed at that moment a landline phone leaning on the other side of the counter. He contemplated the possibility of asking the woman about how much it would cost to use it, in order to call Kyrie again.

However, at the end he simply shook his head with a brief smile and after paying he abandoned the shop, deciding that talking to Kyrie again would only make things worse. He wasn’t going to change his mind after all. He still wanted to continue with the trip, so the only thing he could do was to make sure to come back alive from it with results, in order to show Kyrie he hadn’t been wrong in trusting V, the same as she wasn’t in trusting him.

Even if Nero entered the car again with all the delicacy he could gather (that apparently wasn’t much), V was nevertheless awakened from his sleep when the car bounced lightly after Nero sat again in the driver’s seat.

“Sorry”, Nero apologized while V rubbed his closed eyes before looking around with a light confused expression, “I had to do a technical stop.”

The invoker took the small bag Nero was offering him and raised a skeptic eyebrow when seeing the snacks inside. 

“Yes, I can see the vital importance of your shopping”, V sarcastically said, taking a small bag of candy and shaking it lightly, causing Nero to adopt a defensive tone while starting the car again.

“Hey, that shit is great to prevent low blood sugar”, he said while turning the car to come back to the main road, ignoring the face V put when hearing his argument.

“Perhaps, but aside from using it as an emergency I hardly doubt this food has any significant nutrients”, V began to read with excessive interest the back of the small bag, “in fact, I find hard to believe it is even edible.”

“Look, I can tell you it is. I have eaten quite a bunch of them and I’m still alive”, he rolled his eyes when feeling V’s eyes on him again, picturing perfectly his unconvinced expression, “fine, don’t eat if you don’t want to. But you were also suspicious of Anna’s cookies and at the end they were fucking awesome.”

For the heavy tension that fell after he spelled those words, Nero immediately realized they both were thinking the same, since Hillside was also among the cities that had been attacked. The list of victims of the city hadn’t been made public yet, but Nero wasn’t sure to want to read it and learn that that girl and her mother hadn’t made it.

They didn’t say anything else for almost a minute, until the sound of plastic being opened invaded the silent car. Nero shifted his eyes from the road to V, his eyes opening more when seeing the invoker silently taking one of the gummy candies between index and thumb. Without averting his eyes from the frontal window of the car V approached one to his mouth, chewing it distractedly from some seconds before swallowing. 

“Well, I’m still alive. For now.”

The invoker’s excessive serious tone made Nero exhale a surprised chuckle while shaking his head softly, glad that the silence that fell next came back to be as comfortable as it could given the circumstances.

* * *

During the following two hours they drove quietly, with V occasionally consulting the map when the navigation turned a little crazy and Nero was forced to stop so that it recalculated the route to Mulwin Peaks, their almost-last destination. 

As they were about to reach the third hour of non-stop driving, V noticed that the frequency of Nero’s yawns increased, until at some point he was forced to settle a hand on the wheel when realizing that the car was dangerously entering the contraflow lane because Nero was at the verge of dozing off.

“Shit, sorry”, Nero cursed, blinking a couple of times in an attempt of waking himself up.

“Perhaps turning the radio on can help you keep focus.”

Nero snorted when hearing his suggestion.

“Yeah, and it would if there was a single channel that wasn’t talking about yesterday.”

V remained silent, averting his eyes towards his window while getting lost in his thoughts once again.

If there was a way to describe the previous day was, without a doubt, a mourning day. V had woken up when it was past mid-morning, finding his clothes cleaned and dried on Nero’s messed bed together with a note signed by the boy, saying that he would be out helping around the city. 

Despite the fact that he had been sleeping for almost 9 hours, the exertion his body had been subdued in order to defeat the angelo and his lackeys made him wake up without feeling completely refreshed. However, he refused to let Nero be the only helping hand around, so after dressing up he decided to meet with the boy. There weren’t that many people who responded to the description of ‘young man carrying a sword, a gun and a sophisticated mechanic arm’, so it didn’t take V much to find him. 

Since part of the police officers had been deployed to other areas which were even more in need, the ones that remained around weren’t enough to continue with the search of missing persons and rescue of the ones who may still alive under the rubbles, so Nero, V and a lot of other volunteers devoted the morning and part of the afternoon to that task.

Finding the corpses of civilians who hadn’t been able to withstand the demons’ attacks was difficult, the same as seeing the hope vanishing from the villager’s faces when learning that someone who they thought missing was irremediably gone. However, if there was a moment of the day in which V would have liked to disappear was during the act celebrated in Pitchbale cemetery in memory of the victims that had ‘passed away’, even if according to V ‘murdered’ would have been a more suitable word.

V had never attended a funeral or an event of that nature, neither had any memories of Vergil being in one. Not even in his mother’s one, since at the moment he could only focus on surviving, escaping and hiding from the demons that had the order of eradicating the offspring of the Legendary Dark Knight.

Years had to pass until Vergil could pay a visit to his mother’s grave, once he was able to stand on his own and demons began to fear his name. V had the memory of a teenager Vergil looking at the withered flowers that rested there with barely contained anger. Perhaps some of those offerings had come from his brother, or perhaps they were the result of some benevolent people that decided on their own that his mother’s grave shouldn’t be as solitary. 

Vergil hadn't cared about such a distinction: he threw all of them away, deeply annoyed for the fact that Dante could have had a chance of being there sooner, and also for those strangers who were unable to mind their own business. The same that he would never feel sorrow for anyone that was not his mother, he didn’t grasp the concept of people actually caring for someone else’s loss. In his mind, whoever in placing those flowers was selfishly cleaning their consciences by doing a good-natured act to atone for something else. That was all.

Up till then, V had shared such a thought. After all, since his mother’s death, he had never had any chance to get close enough to anyone to the point of regretting a loss that, apparently, wasn’t related to him. 

But that afternoon, while being with Nero in the last line observing all the survivors from Pitchbale reunited together, V felt his chest tightening when recognizing some of the people suffering in silence while listening to the priest’s words, such as Finn, whose shoulders were shaking as his boyfriend enclosed a consoling arm around his waist, or Zaira, who was grabbing the hand of that kid who saw his mother die in front of him, or those two girls, who V eventually identified as two of the three sisters Nero helped at the festival, and whose sobs let him deduce what the fate of the third missing sister had been. 

For a moment, even if it was brief, the pain that those people were experiencing passed to feel like his own, until contradictory emotions began to invade him. 

The guilt that he managed to park the previous day spread once again, after remembering that he had his part to blame for all that suffering. He felt angry for not not having figured out yet what Urizen’s plan was, for all the lives that could have been saved if he had been more clever. He felt frustrated after witnessing once again that Urizen was way stronger than he ever was, and that he could ever be

But also, part of V couldn’t help to feel contempt for the victims, because by basing on the overcrowded cemetery, the people who had died hadn’t been alone. They had people who worried about them, who cared about them, who _loved_ them, but they hadn’t been strong enough to put a decent fight for them. They had been stupid enough to waste their lives when they had people waiting for them. It was pathetic.

Vergil had spent most part of his life alone. He had been forced to be strong and grow up way faster than he should because any other option was equivalent to death. He had been able to survive without help and without depending on anyone else. He was still alive while others weren’t. So then, why all those people who were already gone still had the right of having someone to care about them and love them when he _, alive,_ never had that chance?

It was _unfair_. 

V didn’t realize that his turmoil was making his tattoos begin to recede until he felt Nero’s hand settling on his shoulder. The boy suggested then that they should take their leave to let the people keep with their grieving, but V had the feeling that the motive for the devil hunter’s proposal was that the boy had noticed he had been about to lose control. When noticing that, the dark thoughts curling inside his mind vanished as fast as they came after remembering that, now, he had someone who cared about him, even if it was the last person he could have ever expected to be.

“How much it takes until reaching the next village?”

Nero’s question made V come back to the present again, realizing that Nero had stopped on the hard shoulder. He extracted the map, gave Nero a couple of indications that he introduced in the navigation panel and, after seeing that they still had at least another day and half of driving, Nero surprised V by beginning to drive backwards in a clear illegal way.

“What are you doing?”, V commented, looking behind him rapidly to make sure there weren’t any cars behind them that could cause them going to die stupidly for a reckless maneuver.

“The last sign we passed lead to one of the last beaches”, Nero said, “if we keep going, there will be mountains everywhere.”

“And your point is…?”, V said in an extremely slow tone that showed he didn’t understand where Nero was going. 

The devil hunter didn’t answer, being focused in taking the correct exit to go to the mentioned beach. After some minutes V was about to impatiently repeat the question when Nero suddenly stopped the car, leaving it again on the hard shoulder but now mere meters away from the [beach](https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f2a7423e8662dcd62b1806efcb7ec112).

“My point is…”, V’s eyes opened more when Nero proceeded to exit the car while offering him a challenging smile, “...that _this_ will be the perfect spot to spar.”

V was still looking at the place where Nero had been with a dumbfounded expression when suddenly his familiars decided to join the boy, who was already about to reach the sand.

“Finally some fresh air!”, Griffon squawked while flying over Nero and Shadow, as the panther began to run on the sand, surely happy to stretch his legs.

“Come on, V”, Nero called from the sand, sitting briefly to remove his boots as V finally exited the car, looking at everyone still without understanding what was going through the others’ head, “we should begin before it gets too dark.”

“Begin with what exactly?”, V inquired, not making any attempt to join them yet.

“I’ve told you already”, Nero said with a patient tone when he was barefoot on the sand, pointing at V with the sword he had extracted from the truck without V noticing, “it’s been a while since you and I fought and this is the perfect place for a rematch.”

V blinked slowly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Do you really think this is the moment for that?”, reproach easily slipped in his tone, causing Shadow to stop rolling happily and Griffon to land on one of the big rocks scattered on the ground, looking guilty as charged, “should I remind you that those demons attacked because of all the time we have already wasted?”

The familiars looked between Nero and him when the first clenched his jaw, probably fearing another fight. However, the devil hunter’s voice sounded as usual when speaking again.

“And should I remind you I was falling asleep while driving? If you want me to be awaken enough to continue, you can bet this is the best way to pump me up.”

Rapidly pushing away the image that the boy’s last expression was about to evoke in his mind, V exhaled a deep sigh, considering their options. Eventually he decided that Nero had a point. It could be risky to continue if Nero was barely able to keep his eyes opened, so perhaps some extra adrenaline was something they both could use. 

“Very well then”, V conceded, causing Griffon to squawk a laugh while Shadow resumed his playing on the sand as he carefully climbed down the small slope leading to the sand with his cane help, “perhaps you have now a chance to beat me—”

That time when V lost foot, Griffon wasn’t there in time to catch him, which provoked V to exhale a small cry while sliding down the last meters of the slope while fighting to uselessly keep balance, ending sitting back on the sand in a fall that was far from being dignified. 

After a couple of seconds of recovering from the light scare, V glared at Nero with the intention of dissuading him from making any comment, but he was about to speak when Nero burst out laughing, going as far as bending in two. In fact, the growl that Shadow let out followed by Griffon’s cough sounded suspiciously similar to muffled laughs.

“Yeah, I _think_ I may have a chance”, Nero said between laughs while approaching V as this one kept showing an almost murderous expression, “although I can give you a couple of minutes of resting, since you look really comfy sitting on your ass—”

When Nero was within reach, already offering him a hand to stand up, V surprised the devil hunter by leaning both of his hands on the sand in order to have enough impulse to kick Nero’s legs with force, making the devil hunter fall backwards with a shout on the sand. 

V didn’t waste a single second, rapidly crawling over Nero in order to press the cane under the boy’s jaw and against his neck, forcing the devil hunter to grab the stick’s extremes to prevent being strangled.

“Enlighten me, Nero: who is now ‘lying on his ass’?”, V provokingly said while approaching his face towards Nero until their noses were brushing, increasing a little more the pressure and making Nero curse.

“Hahaha! You have him, V!!”, Griffon cheered while Shadow growled, agreeing. 

However, Nero hadn’t reached that day alive by being so easily defeated, so when beginning to be deprived from air he surprised V by suddenly releasing the cane in order to point Overture at his face. When seeing the arm charging, V was forced to fall on his side to avoid the electrical shot, allowing Nero to be liberated. The devil hunter rapidly threw V’s cane away in order to tackle him against the sand. V’s front ended against the ground with his arms secured behind him, Nero pressing them with enough force against his lower back so that the action hurt a little.

“I think _I_ have you.”

When hearing that ragged taunt snarled against his ear V expected to feel annoyance, so he was surprised when a rush of arousal momentarily travelled by his body until his fortunately concealed lower half. He rapidly ignored that involuntary reaction though, turning his head to the side to throw up a condescending glare at Nero.

“And I think you claimed victory too early. _Prepare_.”

The way Nero’s eyes opened more indicated V that Nero had recognized the command. The devil hunter’s reflexes allowed him to get away from V in the last second to avoid a bolt thrown by Griffon and a tentacle coming from Shadow.

“Hey, that’s cheating!”, Nero exclaimed as Griffon helped V be on his feet again.

“What? Using my familiars?”, V inquired with a small grin, grabbing the cane in order to swing it once to end pointing at Nero’s arm, “because in that case I’m afraid you will have to dispose of _that_.”

Nero snorted, his eyes shining with defiance while recovering his sword from the ground.

“I’m sure I could beat you one handed while you can’t do much without your pets”, Nero dug his sword on the sand and charged it twice, showing V a toothy smile, “but relax, V: since you are recovering, I’ll be merciful.”

The anticipation showing in Nero’s posture and expression passed to invade V as well when the boy said practically the same words he used during their first fight. It was curious: only two weeks had passed since then, but after all they had gone through together it felt as if much time had passed.

“You’re gonna let him talk to you like that, V?”, Griffon intervened, fueling even more the fire that was already sparkling between them while Shadow inclined his body a little forward, getting ready to attack the moment V said the word.

“I recommend you to save your energies, Nero”, V slowly extracted his book from inside his coat, jade and blue eyes locked together as if they were connected by an invisible, unbreakable string, “you are definitely going to need them.”

* * *

“Alright, it’s evident _I_ won.”

“I am sorry to disagree.”

“Come on, I had you at point-blank range!”

“But you didn’t shoot.”

“Of course I didn’t, you idiot: I would have killed you!”

“That is you merely assuming that Shadow wouldn’t have been able to avoid it.”

“Oh, please, he _wouldn’t_!”

“So, since the rules stipulated once again that the first one in kneeling was the loser _and_ you did, it is _my_ win.”

Nero exhaled a loud, defeated sigh, fighting against the temptation of kicking some sea water towards V as they both walked through the seashore. 

“Don’t worry, next time I won’t stop even if that means putting a damn bullet in your head”, he threatened emptily, causing V to show a mocking approving expression that made Nero half-close his eyes.

“Good. Hesitating in battle is always a great mistake.”

Nero rolled his eyes, but he wasn’t as annoyed as he pretended to be because the improvised sparring had felt rather good. It had helped him release the stress accumulated during the previous day, and it seemed it had been the same for V, since the invoker looked a little tired but way less tense. 

After another minute of simply walking Nero decided to take a seat on the sand, dropping on it while facing the sea with his legs flexed in order to lean his elbows on his knees. When V observed him with his eyebrows raised Nero thought that the invoker would prefer to come back to the car rather than sitting there, so he was surprised when V sat next to him. The invoker placed the cane between them before interlacing his fingers, his hands hanging on the space formed by his crossed legs. 

“Hey, be careful, you giant cat!!”

Griffon’s protest sounding some meters away made both Nero and V to focus their attention on the last one’s familiars, and Nero couldn’t prevent a small laugh from escaping him when seeing Griffon flying while trying to avoid Shadow playing in the sea, his enthusiasm making him accidentally splash water towards Griffon.

“Maybe you should invoke Nightmare so that Griffon has a little of help.”

A hint of a smile appeared on V’s face when hearing his comment.

“Yes, certainly Griffon is at disadvantage”, the amusement of V’s tone was replaced by seriousness after a small pause, “but I would prefer not to risk to exhaust my power.”

Nero detected the hidden bitterness in V’s last words, surely because the invoker was remembering the attack of two days ago. For almost a minute he preferred not to say anything, deciding to simply watch the waves breaking against the shore. However, eventually he was unable not to break the silence that had settled between them.

“You still blame yourself for what happened?”

When feeling V tensing next to him, Nero feared that the invoker reacted as usual and decided to find an excuse not to answer, or that he even left putting an end to the conversation that had barely started.

However, after some seconds V talked.

“Well, it is a fact that my incapacity of finding the source of Urizen’s power caused this. So yes, I still do.”

Nero sighed with frustration when hearing V’s definitive words. 

“I told you already, V. You weren’t the one in commanding those demons to attack: Urizen was.”

V sighed softly, shaking his head.

“You only say that because you don’t know what I’ve done.”

‘ _Yeah, well_ , _I don’t because you won’t ever tell me, you secretive jerk' ,_ Nero was about to snap, but by some miracle he managed to hold those words back in behalf of saying others less straightforward but just as vehement.

“I know what you’ve done”, his words made V look at him in disbelief for a moment before he continued talking, “you helped as many people as you could in the mall, you saved Finn from that fucking tree, and you almost killed yourself in order to stop that demon bastard from keeping razing the fucking city.”

V stared at him from some moments before exhaling a soft laugh, averting his eyes once again.

“No doubt I could beat you once again, Nero. You are too kind for your own good.”

Nero blinked once, barely realizing that V had complimented him (kind of) before snorting loudly, ignoring the way his ears felt a little warmer.

“Why? For telling the truth?”

“No, for trying to comfort me when it is evident that our efforts were not enough.”

Nero sighed again, scratching the back of his head while thinking that V took the cake in people being difficult at accepting praise. But he wasn’t letting him have his way. Not this time.

“Remember those bats that set that farm on fire?”, V focused on him again with confusion, clearly not understanding the apparent change of topic, “when you stopped me from trying to go there.”

As Nero was expecting V tensed, the invoker’s tone coming out harsher when talking next.

“Yes, I do. And once again those were lives that perhaps could have been saved if _—”_

“No, they couldn’t”, Nero interrupted V, stubbornly looking at the invoker in the eye before keeping talking, “the news said that by when the fire started they were already dead, killed by other demons for sure. So when you said that it was impossible to save everyone, that _I_ had to learn when to fight and when to retire, you were right. And I did. That’s why I didn’t stay back in the mall, and the reason why I chose to keep that kid, and Finn, and Roland, and _you_ safe first.”

He stopped to take some air but just briefly, so that the invoker didn’t have the chance of trying to refute his argument. Nero kept speaking with an even ruder tone than before, as if his vehemence was enough to make V stop having so many stupid, illogical doubts about himself.

“And yeah, by basing on numbers maybe I would have saved more people by leaving that kid behind, or you could have used all the time you spent helping Finn leave that truck to help others, or taking care of Roland when the man died at the end was wasting time. But I don’t fucking regret it. Because even if we could have done more, be fucking sure that in case of _both_ of us not being there no one would have remained standing to cry for the ones we didn’t manage to save. So stop with that crap of you being at fault, or you not doing enough, because next time you say that, I’m shooting you for sure.”

The next wave that broke at their feet sounded even stronger than usual, due to the silence that passed to surround them both. At some point Nero felt the temptation of stopping sustaining V’s gaze, feeling a little uncomfortable by the intensity it carried. Fortunately, V was the one in speaking this time, before Nero had time to blurt out the first thing that came to his mind to break the silence, which tended to be rather catastrophic.

“You may have a point. Certainly saving all those people was not in vain. We got several supplies for free after all.”

Nero’s mouth fell slack when hearing V, but almost immediately he huffed. 

“Asshole”, he snapped, leaning a little towards V’s side to softly bump his shoulder against the invoker’s, who didn’t make any attempt of protesting against the appellative.

It was evident that V had made such an out-of-place comment on purpose in order to get that reaction for him. After all, just by seeing how relieved V had looked when Finn approached him that afternoon when they were leaving to thank him once again for saving him, it was evident that the usually hermit V had come to care about some of the people of Pitchbale at some level at least. Not to mention the hug that Zaira gave them both and how V didn’t even flinch during it, despite the fact that the invoker wasn’t even able to let him touch his shoulders for a massage…

...And no, definitely he wasn’t going there. He had already been about to screw things up with the invoker for feeling stupidly bothered by him and the woman being together and he wasn’t letting it get in the way again.

“May I ask you something, Nero?”

Nero nodded immediately. V’s serious, almost solemn tone should have warned him about the nature of the question that was coming, but he was only glad to have something to focus on instead of those ridiculous thoughts and didn’t notice it.

“Who is Credo?”

Nero’s eyes opened wide while looking at V, as his heart came to a momentary stop.

V’s question had taken him totally by surprise, and his stupor must have been pretty evident because the invoker continued in a smoother tone, as if trying to mitigate the shock that he had accidentally provoked on Nero. 

“You called that name when being poisoned in Mallet, and you sounded quite...desperate when doing so. As if that person was someone you lost. Someone you didn’t manage to save.”

Nero gulped, averting his eyes towards the horizon while feeling his heart beating again faster than before.

He knew he was in his right to ignore that question. V did that all the time after all, whenever Nero tried to learn something about his past. However, it didn’t even cross his mind to refuse to answer, the words soon escaping him more easily than all the previous times he had been asked about such a matter.

“He was the Supreme General of the Order of the Sword, and the one who basically taught me everything I know about fighting.”

“Even lowering your guard while sparring?”

Nero huffed, shaking his head.

“Nope, that was on me. And damn, he would have been super angry for it”, his tone soon gained fondness as memories he usually preferred not to remember came back to him, “we were always fighting. He was obsessed with following the rules while I couldn’t care less about them. Shit, it drove him crazy that I used a gun instead of a sword because, according to the Order, such a weapon wasn’t deserving of an honorable Knight.”

V hummed to himself.

“It was the kind of relation in which you only agreed to disagree then.”

Nero exhaled a short laugh.

“Yeah, sounds familiar, huh?”, he sighed then, “he was strict, annoyingly righteous, and the stick up his ass was even worse than the one you have, but he always supported me no matter how many times I disobeyed or broke the rules. He was a good man. One of the best I’ve ever known.”

He made a brief pause during which V simply observed him in silence, waiting for him to continue with a voice that came out more trembling because of the anger and sadness, his hands turning into fists without realizing.

“The moment he learned about Sanctus’ true intentions, he didn’t hesitate in throwing everything away to fight against him. That’s how he died: fighting to protect both Kyrie and me. And what did I do? Nothing. I could do _nothing_ but watch him die”, he exhaled a long sigh, gulping again to try to remove the small lump that had formed in his throat before muttering the following words with self-hate, “I was too weak to save him.”

Nero remained silent after saying that, not trusting his voice anymore after talking about something he had avoided mentioning for so many years. 

While the next silence fell, Nero waited for the obvious comment to come. After all he was used to it already, which was one of the main reasons why he had avoided the topic for so long. He was tired of being consoled or pitied. He didn’t deserve it and he couldn’t stand it.

But he should have known better that with V, you should never expect the logical comeback. 

“Yes. You _were_.”

For someone else, perhaps V’s blunt words would have been received badly, since in that kind of situations people usually preferred to be comforted even if it was with empty reassurances or white lies. However, V’s brutal honesty caused the opposite effect in Nero, so he didn’t feel affected, or offended, or angry because of V’s apparent lack of delicacy.

He felt relieved. 

It was the first time that someone dared to confirm what he already knew: that in case of having been stronger, he could have protected the General. That Credo’s death, at least at some level, had been his fault. 

Kyrie had never blamed him for Credo’s death, repeating over and over again that it hadn’t been his fault whenever Nero tried to mention the topic, that there was nothing he could have done in order to prevent it. Nero knew she did that out of love for him, but as good as Kyrie’s intentions were when supporting him like that, he knew those words weren’t true. So at some point, Nero simply stopped talking about it. Besides, it was her brother whom they were talking about. It was unfair to keep remembering something that was causing both of them pain.

But with V, he didn’t regret to have brought up the topic again, because V was different. 

V understood.

By basing on the little information V had hinted about his life, it was obvious that the invoker knew well the impotence of being unable to protect something, _someone,_ important to him. He had probably suffered first-hand the consequences of not being as strong as he should, which surely explained his non-existent tolerance to debility and to the excuses that tried to justify it.

For that reason V hadn’t provided good-natured but fake words of support, because he knew very well they were pointless. V had been the first person in not lying to make him feel better, confirming without hesitation Nero’s fears while managing at the same time to deliver a powerful message only by putting emphasis on that last past tense. 

The message that yes, Nero may have been weak in the past, but he wasn’t anymore.

Nero gulped again, looking at V’s serene, convinced expression while feeling a weight he didn’t realize he was bearing be lifted from his shoulders. It was shocking how those three simple words had managed to make him feel more liberated than the continuous reassurances he had been having for so many years.

“Guys, watch out!”

When hearing Griffon’s sudden warning, the eye contact Nero and V were sharing was broken when they looked towards the sea, in time to see a especially big wave about to break against the shore.

“Oh, _shit_!”, Nero exclaimed, realizing that they wouldn’t be fast enough to avoid getting soaked.

Thankfully, V was fast enough to grab his cane and command a hurried ‘ _On me_!’ addressed to Shadow, who formed a shield in front of them just when the water was about to reach them. 

At that moment Griffon began to laugh boisterously as a completely drenched Shadow recovered his panther form with a resigned expression that forced Nero to bite his lower lip not to join the bird’s laughter.

“Good catch, cat! You didn’t let a single drop go to waste _—_ wait wait _wait_ , it was a joke!!”

This time, even V laughed quietly when Shadow began to run after Griffon with the clear intention of drenching him as well. 

“Maybe this would be a good time to call them back, you know?”, Nero suggested with a smile while standing up without needing to lean his hands on the ground as a support, “before they kill each other I mean.”

“Perhaps that would be wise”, V conceded, this time accepting the hand that Nero offered him in order to stand up. 

Nero didn’t release it immediately, causing V to look at him questioningly.

“Thanks.”

He made sure to be looking at V in the eyes when saying that, causing V’s expression to soften for a moment.

“You’re welcome. We don’t have a change of clothes after all, and driving all wet must be really uncomfortable.”

Nero rolled his eyes when V acted as if he had thanked him for Shadow stopping them from ending drenched, because he knew that the invoker understood what he was thanking him for. 

After finally releasing V’s hand Nero looked towards the sea. A surprised chuckle was about to escape him when realizing that, without noticing, they had seen the sunset together. He was about to make a joking comment about it when, at that moment, V began to talk while also looking towards the dying sun, causing Nero to close his mouth in order to stare at the invoker.

“ _The sun descending in the west,/The evening star does shine,/The birds are silent in their nest,/And I must seek for mine._ ”

Nero didn’t realize he had held his breath while listening to V until he was forced to let out the air. 

Of course it wasn’t the first time he heard V recite poetry. Actually, the invoker had just done it less than an hour ago when sparring, but this time was different. He didn’t know if it was the scenery surrounding them, the surely accidental vulnerability that had tinged V’s voice when talking, or him feeling uncharacteristically sensitive for having shared such a thing of his past with V. But at that moment, the way V looked while reciting those verses as if he was far away from there had been...

“...beautiful.”

Nero wasn’t aware that he had said that word aloud until V stared him in disbelief, causing Nero to feel his ears burning. _Crap_. 

“The poem”, Nero practically snapped as a smile that was equally teasing and amused passed to adorn V’s face, “I-I mean that the _poem_ was beautiful.”

V hummed to himself with that annoying smile still in place that made Nero pray that the blush didn’t reach his cheeks.

“I’m glad it is of your liking”, the invoker said with a polite tone that contrasted with the sassiness present in his eyes, “though I would love to hear your opinion on what the poem means.”

Nero barked a laugh, pointing towards the car with a brusque gesture of his head before beginning to walk towards it, followed by V.

“With only a couple of sentences? Come on: not even you would be able to interpret it.”

“Well, I can always indulge you and recite the rest in the car.”

“Nope thanks. Your soporific voice will make me sleep while driving.”

“Oh, so you are aware of what ‘soporific’ means? Perhaps you aren’t as brute as I thought you were.”

Unlike the footprints that their feet had left on the wet sand and which were quickly erased by the waves, their teasing remained even after they were inside the car once again, together with that new feeling of closeness that kept accompanying them as the sound of the engine broke through the silent night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came out more romantic that I had initially planned hehe <3  
> There will still be a little more of bonding and revelations until things got a little interesting once again ;)


	18. (June 2) - Never have I ever...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since really soon (in a couple of chapters to be precise) there will be a chapter exclusively from Nero's POV, this one I preferred to leave it with V's only.

**_June 2 - 7:23 p.m._ **

“Holy Moley, did you decide to take a swim on the river or what?”

V tried to push back his completely drenched hair off his face without success, while the man sitting behind the reception counter of Mulwin’s [inn](https://cdn3.gbot.me/photos/TG/sI/1417892456/-visit_to_Baldwin_Village_-20000000008402714-500x375.jpg) began to laugh when seeing his completely soaked state, product of the storm that had been accompanying them during most part of the day.

Seconds later an equally drenched Nero rapidly closed the door of the small building behind him while cursing, sheltering them inside. Probably it would have been safer to wait until the raining subsided before continuing, especially when the terrain began to become steeper and the side of the road occasionally disappeared down to form a cliff. However, the weather hadn’t looked as if it was going to improve any time soon, so after considering their options both Nero and him decided to make the most of the daylight hours to try to reach their destination before nightfall.

The fact that they didn’t stop even once combined with Nero stepping on the gas pedal allowed them to reach [Mulwin](https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/157987.jpg) several hours before they had estimated, thing that V appreciated because even if their current accommodation had seen better days, the perspective of sleeping again in the car _and_ outdoors was infinitely less appealing. 

“Fuck, if there aren’t any available rooms, I’m sleeping on the fucking floor but _like hell_ if I’m going outside again.”

After snapping those words Nero dropped his about to burst backpack and removed the hood of his coat. The owner of the inn laughed again when hearing Nero’s words before exclaiming a loud ‘ _Billy!_ ’ towards one of the lateral rooms. A man who had left his forties way behind as well appeared from it, his similitude with the other innkeeper indicating they were surely brothers. The man called Billy greeted them with a silent nod before limping slightly towards one of the corners of the room to extract a mop from a small wardrobe, while the man behind the counter placed an old book over the counter with certain difficulty.

“Don’t worry, you can even choose which room you prefer”, the rather old owner reassured them while beginning to pass the pages slowly, “the place is totally empty, the same as the rest of the village.”

“Why?”, Nero inquired with a frown before rapidly bending down to remove his boots when realizing they were staining the floor, causing the other silent and grumpy-looking innkeeper to let out an approving grunt before efficiently beginning to clean the floor they both had accidentally wet.

“Well, most part of the people have fled to the bigger cities after what happened”, the innkeeper stopped passing pages then and turned the book around to offer it to V, who filled their names with the pen that was attached to the book with a small cord, “they didn’t want to risk to be attacked here as well. After all we are pretty isolated and by when the police arrived, we would be dead already. Thank you.”

The last two words were addressed to V when this one returned the book to him. V reached for his wallet inside his pocket, innerly glad of having kept his poetry book in the shoulder bag or otherwise it would have probably ended ruined. The invoker extracted the bills to pay for the two-nights’ accommodation, offering the money to the old man while looking at him with curiosity.

“You don’t sound very worried about such an outcome.”

The man chuckled while reaching for a couple of keys that he left on the counter for him to take.

“We’re too old to be worried about death, son. Besides, our daughters are safe in better communicated cities, so if the worst happens our rusty bones will be the only loss.”

The man didn’t say such a thing to be pitied or comforted, but as a matter of fact. V realized that the old man could die that same day and surely he would go without regrets, while the perspective of disappearing into nothingness made him wake up at night with cold sweat and a racing heart. He guessed that _that_ was the difference between someone who had already fulfilled his goal in life from someone who still had so much to do and repair.

Nero beginning to climb up the stairs with his usual lack of subtleness woke him up from his thoughts before these ones spiraled towards a darker zone. He briefly wished both men a good night and proceeded to follow the devil hunter towards their respective [rooms](https://www.baldwininn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Baldwin-Village-Inn-Suite2d.jpg), which were communicated through a door that could only be closed in V’s side.

“Hey, what are you doing?”, Nero said when V disposed himself to close it by using his key, “look, if you want to close it that’s fine but jeez, using the key? We’ve already slept together, so there’s no need for it.”

At any other moment V would have probably mentioned something about the words Nero had used to indicate they had shared _a room_ , but he was busy trying _not_ to stare as the devil hunter talked naturally while removing his coat, and continued with the sweater, and not happy with it he also removed his grey t-shirt, reaching up with his hand to ruffle his short hair a little in order to make some drops of water fall onto the floor.

“I’m gonna take a shower”, Nero continued, unaware of the small gulp that V hid since the boy was busy taking the backpack to throw it unceremoniously on V’s bed through the shared door, “I’ll try to be quick not to waste all the hot water.”

V had already recovered from Nero’s unexpected undressing to react.

“Wait”, his call made Nero stop and turn around to face him again, “why should _you_ shower first?”

Nero snorted, crossing his arms in a way that made his front muscles stretch a little in the process.

“Because first, the bathroom is in my room.”

Well, at least Nero’s stubborn attitude mixed with the vision of _that_ necklace around the boy’s neck helped V focus and adopt an annoyed expression with practically zero difficulty.

“That argument is completely absurd, because by following that logic since _I_ paid the whole accommodation _I_ should be the one in using it.”

“Yeah, but _I_ am the one who has been driving for almost 12 hours straight while you dozed off, so I deserve to use the bathroom first.”

“I was not ‘dozing of’ but resting my eyesight, since I was the one in charge of reading the map to make sure we arrived here.”

“Hah! ‘Resting your eyes’ my ass: you were even drooling while sleeping.”

“I _wasn’t_ doing such a thing.”

At that moment Shadow and Griffon appeared in the room. The panther comfortably lied on V’s bed and stretched while yawning as Griffon posed on the bedside table, making the small lamp over it move dangerously.

“Guys, guys, come on, don’t argue: if you don’t agree who goes first, you can always bath together!”

V insulted himself internally when he couldn’t prevent his eyes from opening more when hearing Griffon’s mocking suggestion, but since Nero blushed slightly while snorting even more loudly before disappearing towards the bathroom, he guessed his reaction had been rather acceptable in comparison.

“What?”, Griffon inquired with a fake innocent tone while V turned around to look at him with half-closed eyes, “I was trying to help.”

V exhaled a defeated sigh, feeling that it would be surely worse to insist on the matter. He spent some minutes organizing the remaining supplies on the small table of the corner, realizing that the stuffed animal that Nero gave him during the festival had been there all that time. He was sustaining it in his hand, surprised that Nero decided to keep it safe after their rather sound fight, when true to his word Nero loudly announced that he was about to finish.

“I’m not deaf, Nero”, V said with a light reproachful tone while storing the toy back to the backpack, obtaining another huff from the devil hunter.

“You heard the old men: we are alone on this inn so shouting is not such a big deal.”

V heard at that moment the creaking door of the neighbor bathroom opening and closing. He was about to cross to Nero’s room with his own towel and the clothes he used to sleep in hand when he stopped, preferring to knock instead.

“Are you decent?”

When a brief silence fell at the other side, V was already expecting the light confused component that tinged Nero’s voice when the boy talked next.

“Uhm...yeah?”

V rolled his eyes with impatience.

“I mean if you are dressed, Nero.”

“ _Oh_. Damn, you and your weird talking”, V was about to protest saying that he was the illiterate when Nero continued, “with a towel. Does that count?”

V decided it did while opening the door. Nero was in the middle of the room with a towel wrapped around his waist while energetically drying his hair with a smaller one. The invoker walked just a little faster than usual to reach the bathroom since he didn’t trust that the devil hunter suddenly decided to drop the only clothing covering his body in order to change. After all, the boy had proved his indifference for being seen naked in more than one occasion when they had been forced to share a room, being V the one who always hid in the bathroom to change whenever he noticed Nero undressing.

At that point, it would be pointless to deny that Nero’s physical (naked) appearance didn’t leave him indifferent, but V had convinced himself that such a thing was not particularly worrisome or relevant. He had always been able to appreciate aesthetics, and no one could deny that the boy’s body deserved a separate section. In fact, he was pretty sure that in case of being complete, Vergil would have surely tried to lie with Nero. After all, Vergil had never particularly minded the genre of the people he slept with. As long as they were physically appealing, able to provide him with sexual gratification and he was the one in control (and he _always_ was), the older son of Sparda had never minded if the person brought to his bed was a man or a woman.

However, even if V had wondered in a couple of occasions if Nero would be as wild and ruthless under the sheets as he was on the battlefield _and_ against him, he knew very well that those were thoughts he should avoid conceiving and, above all, showing. It was already a miracle that they came back to get along after that fight, so he didn’t want that things got tense between them once again due to his punctual waves of physical attraction towards Nero.

“The tap is a little stuck”, Nero warned when V was about to enter, thankfully interrupting his thoughts, “so maybe you have to use brute force to open it.”

V offered Nero a sarcastic look when detecting the hidden offer in the boy’s words.

“Thank you, but I think I’ll be able to deal with a tap.”

He ignored the way Nero exhaled a resigned sigh and closed the door behind him. The [bathroom](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0a/a7/c0/4f/bathtub.jpg) was rather old and it could use a reform, but at least it was acceptably clean. V left his change of clothes over the toilet and proceeded to open the tap to adjust the correct temperature before undressing.

Two minutes later he was still fighting with the tap to open it, so after deciding Nero was going to suspect if he took much longer than him he decided to invoke Shadow inside the bathroom so that the panther used his tentacles in order to open the tap, not feeling like dealing with Nero’s ‘ _I told you’_ attitude.

Part of him was really tempted to take a long bath making the most of the bathtub, but at the end he went for a shower, since a bath would probably leave him excessively relaxed and he still needed to discuss with Nero the course of action for the next day.

It still took him another 10 minutes to leave the bathroom, since he also used the dryer and had to spend a couple of extra minutes fixing his hair that had ended ridiculously wavy. After that, he left his damp clothes hanging in the bathroom, hoping they were dry for the next day before finally returning to the room.

V frowned when not seeing Nero there. He was about to ask his familiars where the devil hunter was but he didn’t need to do so. Nero was sitting legs crossed on _his_ bed together with Shadow. The devil hunter was dressed in some looser pants and a tank-top that was acceptably loose, while giving his back to the room’s entrance.

“Hey”, Nero offered V a small grin, “Shadow left for a moment. Did you need help with something?”

V’s eyebrow twitched imperceptibly when noticing the teasing in Nero’s voice. He clicked his tongue softly while approaching the bed in order to sit against the pillows, mimicking Nero’s posture by also crossing his legs, leaving some empty space between them.

“Yes, but it is nothing of your concern.”

The barked laugh that Nero exhaled indicated that the boy surely suspected the motive, but fortunately the devil hunter was hungry enough and preferred to stand up to gather their dinner instead of insisting on the matter.

V managed to win the fight against Nero who initially insisted on ignoring his rationed food. The boy reluctantly agreed to keep most part of the supplies for the next day, but completely ignored V’s warnings about not eating too many candies, making him think once again that Nero’s parents must have it tough when dealing with the boy as a kid.

Speaking of which, Nero had never mentioned anything about them. The only things Nero had shared about his past was belonging to the Order and being patient enough to be with Kyrie since a young age, but that was all. However, considering how fondly Nero had spoken about Credo, he guessed that the man had been more than his mentor. It had surely been close to family, but that was all the information V had. And surprisingly, it didn’t feel like it was enough.

“So, about tomorrow…”, Nero interrupted himself to approach his fist to his mouth to hide a small burp after eating too many gummies, obviously unaware of where V’s thoughts were, “...we have to climb a mountain?”

“More or less”, V put the empty plastic packages of his sandwiches inside one of the bags carefully not to stain himself, being Shadow the one who used one of his tentacles to grab the bag and throw it inside the waste bin so that V didn’t have to do it, “we will still be able to use the car most of the way, but the last part will have to be made on foot.”

“And we know what is up there? A temple, a cave, more catacombs…?”

Nero tried to throw a wrinkled package inside the waste bin from the bed, but when he failed and the rubbish was about to fall onto the floor Shadow caught it to throw it inside, causing Nero to say an amicable ‘thanks’ towards the panther while Griffon tsked a low ‘clumsy’ that gained him a distracted middle finger coming from the devil hunter.

“By basing on the annotations, I am more inclined to think that it will be a temple, but I am not entirely certain, so we should be ready for everything.”

“Okay, then tomorrow we are buying other shoes. Like hell if you are climbing up the mountain with _those_.”

Nero suddenly signaling _his_ sandals resting against the wall, which made V look at the boy questioningly.

“What is wrong with _those_ shoes?”

“Eh, I don’t know: that they couldn’t be shittier for mountain walking?”

“Says the guy whose stinky boots are about to break at any moment.”

“Yeah, but they are _boots_. Do you really plan to climb up a mountain with _sandals_?”

“I remind you that, unlike you, I have Griffon to help me climb the problematic areas, so yes, I will.”

While the bird sighed exaggeratedly for his role to play in the matter, Nero opened his mouth to protest but he ended closing it in defeat.

“Fine, do what you want _but_ if you twist an ankle, I’m not carrying you.”

V had barely registered that Nero had actually made a suggestion on his behalf and not just to tease him when someone knocked at their door. Despite the probabilities of a demon being polite enough to knock were scarce, V realized that Nero rapidly checked that his weapons were within reach before leaving the bed to open the door.

Predictably there was no enemy at the other side but the innkeeper, sustaining a rather old and slightly dusty radio that Nero proceeded to take from his hands, since it was evident the man was carrying it with effort.

“Good evening, I hope not having woken you up”, the man said after recovering his breath, drying the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, “but I just remembered that the room you had picked didn’t have any TV so I thought that at least you could use this to have some entertainment.”

The man’s heavy breathing indicated that he had climbed the stairs to deliver the device, so Nero thanked him for it before closing the door again.

“He is quite anchored in the past”, V commented, “I doubt that young people use something like this anymore _—_ ”

V interrupted himself when seeing Nero fumbling with the radio. Since they were alone again his familiars came back, and his expression made Griffon begin to laugh.

“You forgot that the kid grew up as a caveman: that device must be super new for him.”

“Hey, who are you calling a caveman, stupid chicken?!”

Nero threw a shot with his arm towards Griffon, making this one squawk while V hushed, though it was unlikely that the innkeepers’ hearing was good enough to have heard it. After some minutes Nero managed to tune the radio so that it reproduced the last hits of the year.

“I would like to know what people appreciate in [this](https://youtu.be/19rMYS_eua0?t=48) kind of music”, V inquired skeptically, causing Nero to exhale a short laugh.

“Let me guess: you prefer boring classical music.”

V tried to keep his face neutral, but something must have betrayed him because Nero smiled proudly.

“I guess I’m right.”

Clicking his tongue, V leaned his back against the pillows while crossing his arms, talking with a condescending tone.

“Well, the fact that you directly catalog classical music as boring gives a clear idea about your musical culture.”

Nero snorted.

“Sorry, man, but in Fortuna we were forced to study it thoroughly to ‘purify our spirit’ and I know what I’m talking about.”

“Oh, do you? Then if you know ‘that much’ then you will be able to perfectly mention its main periods _—_ ”

“We first have the Ancient music, dated before 500 A.D. Then we have the Early music period going from 500 to 1600, in which we can find Medieval musical divided, as well, in Ars Antiqua, Nova and Subtilior, passing then to the Renaissance. Of course, the medieval was the favorite of my teachers and the one who I came to dislike the most”, Nero crossed his arms again, pointing with his chin at V with a cocky expression, “do you want me to go deeper in that one? I bet I will manage to make you hate it as much as I did.”

While Griffon began to laugh, V managed to break through his stupor in order to offer Nero a light impressed smirk.

“Well, not bad certainly, but I’m afraid that you are missing a lot of good eras. I could give you a quick lesson of the Baroque era or the Galant Music if you are interested.”

Nero’s answer was to raise the volume of the music without changing his expression and without stopping looking at V, causing this one to make a grimace before snapping Nero’s hand away in order to lower it again. Neither of them noticed the way Griffon and Shadow interchanged a look at that moment, and how they both nodded briefly before the bird talking after discreetly clearing his throat.

“So, V, this temple we are going to visit will be practically our last stop, right?”

V looked at Griffon with suspicion when hearing his excessively casual tone.

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Well…”, V and Nero were forced to duck their respective heads when Griffon flew over them to land on the table of the corner, “...in that case I think we have to hold a small celebration.”

“Celebration?”, Nero repeated, frowning with confusion, “but don’t you think it would be better to wait until we finish the journey to do it?”

“Yes, well, we can do both”, Griffon agreed, opening Nero’s backpack resting on the chair to extract something from it that caused V’s eyes to open more, “buuut with all the stress we’ve been going through I think we deserve some relaxing time.”

“I think your memory is failing you, Griffon. We rested more than enough in the beach.”

V’s words were completely ignored by Griffon, who simply dropped the bottle of Pitchbale’s most famous wine on the bed between them, something that the people of the village had given them among other supplies as a token of gratitude for their help during the attacks.

“Bah, that doesn’t count”, the bird said, returning to his place on the bedside table, “come on, guys, don’t be spoiler: we never know when will be the next time we’ll sleep in a comfortable inn and enjoy a couple of drinks!”

V was going to retort against such a statement, saying that such a thing could be perfectly planned, but Nero going for the bottle to look at it in excessive concentration caught his attention.

“You are not planning on opening it.”

On his defense, V really planned to make a question, but it came as a command that caused Nero to shrug.

“Why not? I mean, the bird has a point: between Mallet and those fucking demons it’s been a shitty week, so chilling out a little can’t be bad.”

V was so busy deadpanning at Nero that he missed the way Griffon and Shadow nodded effusively.

“Nero, must I remind you that tomorrow you have to be in good condition to drive, right?”

“Yep, and precisely because _I_ will have to keep driving for the next days, this will be my only chance to try this shit”, Nero effortlessly removed the bottle cork and offered a conciliatory smile at V when this one half-closed his eyes, after his warning was completely ignored, “relax. I can hold my liquor, so tomorrow I’ll be fresh like a daisy.”

V looked at Nero skeptically, being aware by then of Nero’s bad boasting habit. When the devil hunter planned to drink directly from the bottle, he rapidly stopped such a thing from happening by placing a hand on Nero’s arm, causing everyone to look at him while waiting for him from keeping protesting. V was about to do so, or that’s what he thought, because he was the first one surprised by the words that eventually left his mouth.

“If we are going to toast, at least have the decency of bringing a couple of glasses.”

Nero’s eyes opened more, clearly not having expected his comment. Meanwhile Griffon exhaled a loud ‘ _Yeah_!’ before rapidly flying to the other room to bring back a couple of small glasses from the bathroom while humming to himself.

It was V the one who poured the content in both glasses. He then raised it and looked at Griffon with irony.

“So, can you do the honors?”

The bird cawed a small laugh before nodding.

“Of course”, he cleared his throat again, “we celebrate that we have reached June alive”, he was about to stop there when Shadow grunted softly, causing Griffon to continue, “oh, and that we are definitely closer to beat Urizen!”

“Hell yeah, I like that toast”, Nero approved by making his glass chime almost violently with V’s, as the invoker got lost in his thoughts when hearing Griffon, “cheers!”

Griffon repeated that as well while Shadow growled. V was the only one in muttering it while taking a small sip, his mind far away when realizing that in case of finally finding something about Urizen in that temple, the time to be complete again would finally come.

That was the only thing he had initially wanted, the thing he _had to_ do in order to survive. But at that moment, he found himself thinking, _fearing_ , about what would happen with Nero and him after finally becoming whole again.

Would the boy keep wanting to collaborate together? Or on the contrary Nero would prefer to forget everything about that journey to come back to his previous life? V knew the second case was the most plausible one, but even if Nero opted for the first, even if the boy really wanted him to stay, would he still accept him after he returned as Vergil?

And the most important thing: would Vergil allow that to happen?

After all V was just a part of that whole. What if after being complete again Vergil’s other half managed to win over him _again_? What if Vergil, as part of him still feared, decided those feelings of trust and care he had for the boy were devoted to make him weak _again_? What if he discovered it was better to never see Nero again?

And why such a perspective was causing that disagreeable tightness in his chest?

At that moment, V was brought back to reality when the devil hunter exhaled a chuckle. He looked at Nero, trying to bury those sudden doubts as deep as he could by talking with a tone that came out acceptably normal.

“What is it?”, he inquired, causing Nero to shake his head softly even if he actually answered.

“I was just remembering a drinking game that other Knights used to play when I was in the Order.”

V frowned with suspicion, missing once again the way Griffon and Shadow interchanged another anticipated glance.

“I find hard to believe that the Order allowed its Knight to perform such a practice.”

“And it didn’t”, Nero grinned, “but even if they were some real pricks, there were other guys who didn’t give a shit about such a stupid rule.”

V had to suppress a small smile when picturing a younger Nero defying as many rules as possible. He kind of wanted to know more about it. Wanting to know more about Nero in general. Because who knew how much time he had to do so?

“How’s that game called?”

Griffon’s casual question caused Nero to hum while shutting his eyes closed in order to think back. The boy absentmindedly tapped his right mechanic fingers against the glass he was sustaining against the bed with his left, making V feel quite impressed for how talented the craftswoman who created such a piece was.

“I got it: ‘never have I ever”,  V didn’t bother to pretend to know what that divertimento was about when Nero talked with a triumphant tone, which caused the devil hunter to continue talking, “the game is pretty simple: someone says something they have _never_ done and the people who have _ever_ done such a thing have to drink.”

V waited for Nero to continue, but when seeing that _that_ was the only explanation the boy was going to provide, he blinked.

“And the fun component of the game is…?”

Nero sighed with patience when hearing his condescending question, which indicated such a game was a waste of time.

“Well, you can get to know pretty embarrassing stuff about other people. And it’s kind of a battle of endurance, you know? The last man standing or the less drunken one is the one who wins.”

“Pffff”, Griffon suddenly intervened, “that game would be a bore between you two. It’s _obvious_ who would be the winner.”

“Hell yeah.”

“Absolutely.”

V stared at Nero when hearing his confident tone after they talked at the same time, missing once again the way Griffon winked at Shadow, who returned the wink.

“Nero, it is evident that Griffon is talking about me.”

“Eh, no? Please, you can’t even eat like a normal person, so it’s obvious you will be drunk with just one glass.”

V’s jaw tensed while raising his chin arrogantly.

“Do you want to see who is the last man standing?”

Nero’s blue eyes shined more for the challenge implicit in his words.

“Yeah, though looking into a mirror would be enough to know that.”

V felt his blood boiling slightly for the provocation, his need to prove Nero wrong being potentiated for the way his familiars were barely suppressing their laughs, as if they agreed with the boy.

“I really hope you were not boasting before, Nero”, without averting his eyes from the devil hunter V reached for the bottle leaning on the small table again to pour more liquid on their respective glasses, “you have to be in good condition tomorrow to climb that mountain.”

Nero snorted confidently.

“Right back at you, V”, the boy took his already full glass while beginning to think a question, “...okay, so, never have I ever used a cane in battle.”

“ _Hah_?!”, Griffon squawked when V half-closed his eyes at Nero, “come on, that’s cheating!”

“Really, why?”, Nero inquired with fake innocent tone while V was forced to take a small sip.

“Very well, if that’s how you want to play: never have I ever used a gun in battle.”

Griffon exhaled a long, exasperated sigh when Nero was the one in drinking, muttering to himself a low ‘ _these boys are hopeless_ ’ as V and Nero continued almost dozen of turns exclusively formulating questions related to their unique way of fighting, to make sure the other one _always_ drank.

The bottle ended half-empty in no time, and when V was taking his sixth sip while thinking (with more difficulty, he noticed) about the next question that would make Nero speak, Griffon suddenly intervened.

“Guys, you disappoint me”, V realized he had to put more effort so that his eyes focused on the bird, “you are playing it super safe, that’s no fun.”

“Super safe?”, Nero inquired with a slightly louder voice that betrayed the alcohol may have begun to take effect.

“Yes, you said it yourself, brat: the funny part of the game is to try to guess embarrassing things about the other players. You won’t achieve _that_ by talking about boring battle tactics.”

Even if V’s mind began to be in that state of dizziness characteristic of being close to tipsiness, he was still more than sober to know that exposing himself to such a game wasn’t clever, especially when his defenses weren’t as sturdy as usual.

However, Griffon had a point. It could be the perfect opportunity to learn certain things that had been rounding his head about Nero, and considering how simple minded the boy could be sometimes, he doubted Nero dared to lie, unlike him who wouldn’t hesitate in doing so in case of not liking the formulated question.

“And since it’s V’s turn, I have a really good one”, Griffon offered Nero a teasing look, “never have I ever called someone beautiful by accident.”

Perhaps V was more affected by the drink than he thought, because when Nero’s eyes opened impossible wide after hearing Griffon’s question, V began to laugh, causing Nero’s ears to end fully red.

“Hey, _that’s_ cheating!”, Nero exclaimed while V made an effort to calm himself enough before speaking again, even if a smirk was still present in his lips.

“No, it’s not: Griffon is my familiar so his questions are as valid as mine.”

Nero glared at V as Griffon exhaled a triumphant ‘ _Hah!_ ’. The bird changed position to be leaning next to V while Shadow also placed both his front paws on the bed, in order to better witness the game. While the familiars put themselves more comfortable, the devil hunter muttered a curse to himself and after some seconds he took a sip that ended being longer than it should, the emphasis of the gesture making some of the content of the glass end against his white t-shirt.

“I thought you were talking about the poem”, V continued teasing as Nero swallowed. The devil hunter’s ears were still red but his eyes hadn’t lost their defiance when looking at V again while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Well, now you know I wasn’t.”

Nero’s snarled words accompanied by the way he fluently removed his t-shirt made V’s mouth fall a little slack, images of what Nero’s next action could be sneaking in his mind uninvitedly. He stared at Nero in tension as this one carelessly threw the t-shirt on the bed before going for the bottle to fill his glass again. Nero was about to speak when noticing V’s expression.

“It’s my only change of clothes. And damn, it’s hot in here now.”

As if such an explanation was perfectly valid Nero began to hum to himself, thinking about his next question while V suppressed the urge of suggesting opening the room window, since the room felt a little hotter than before.

“Okay, I got it: never have I ever lied about my age.”

V clicked his tongue softly, taking a sip and causing Nero to exhale a triumphant, overly enthusiastic ‘ _Aha!_ ’ while signaling at him.

“I _knew_ you were older than me”, Nero looked at V with an eager expression, “come on, V, confess: how old are you? I bet you are more than 30.”

“One month and a day.”

Nero offered a deadpan expression at him.

“Shit, you could at least try to make it credible, you know?”

V simply smiled cryptically before averting his eyes to the side, hesitating about his next question.

“Oh, I have another one!!”

“It’s not necessary, Griffon”, V said while looking at Nero inquisitively, “never have I ever been an orphan.”

It was clear that Nero hadn’t been expecting such a serious question because the boy lost his smile while tensing a little.

As he had been expecting Nero took a sip, so V got ready for the boy to react defensively for having made such a question in a game that was supposed to be fun. However, even if Nero’s tension kept being there after leaning the glass on the mattress, the boy looked comfortable enough around V to talk again even when the invoker hadn’t asked further.

“Yep, I don’t know who my parents are. I was told that my mother left me in the orphanage soon after I was born, but there was no trace of her after that. Not of my father either”, Nero scratched the back of his head with his mechanic arm before looking at it, “maybe they were able to feel I wasn’t normal even before my demonic arm awakened.”

V frowned when hearing Nero, not liking the boy’s self-mocking tone one bit.

“Normality is the most overestimated characteristic”, V’s sudden definitive tone caused Nero to look at him again, “‘normal’ people would never be able to carry out this kind of mission, or survive a horde of demons like the one we faced. _We_ are. That is enough to prove that your parents were fools by abandoning you.”

The ingested alcohol made V talk with a tone that was more vehement than usual, but the way Nero’s naked shoulders relaxed again and the smile that returned to the boy’s face made V not regret losing his serenity momentarily.

“Jeez, guys, you _really_ suck at this, you know?”, Griffon inquired after a short pause fell in the room, causing Nero to exhale a laugh while V looked at the bird without understanding.

“You right, bird: let’s improve the mood a bit. Never have I ever tattooed my dick.”

Both Nero and Griffon began to laugh when seeing V’s eyes snap opened in disbelief, as Shadow used one of his tentacles to pat his back in a reassuring gesture.

“What kind of question is _that_?”, V said with a tone that sounded haughtily offended, causing Nero to laugh again.

“I’m just curious to know where your tattoos reach”, he moved his chin softly towards V with curiosity, “so? You drink or not?”

V exhaled an exaggerated resigned sigh and didn’t grab the glass, making Nero nod to himself, looking pretty satisfied.

“I doubt you can beat that one, V”, Griffon singsonged, causing V to half-close his eyes while offering Nero a mischievous smile.

“Oh, I think I can”, he got ready for Nero’s next reaction, “never have I ever pleasured myself.”

V’s smirk widened when Nero blushed intensely, while Griffon was forced to flap his wings a little when he was about to fall from the bed due to a laughing attack.

“H-Hey, that question isn’t valid!”

“Why not?”

“Because come on, like hell if you haven’t jerked off at least once in your life.”

V offered Nero a fake shocked expression.

“Nero, who says I was talking about masturbation?”

Nero’s mouth opened wide before pointing an accusing finger at him, as Griffon was still trying to recover from his laughing attack.

“Don’t fuck with me, V: it’s obvious you were referring to _that_.”

“That is a mere supposition. I could be simply meaning that I have never allowed myself to give priority to pleasure over my duties.”

“Like HELL if you were meaning that, asshole.”

“Well, in any case I have formulated my question and you have to answer it, so feel free to interpret it as you see fit.”

V’s obliging smile made Nero clench his jaw. The devil hunter grabbed the glass, approached it to his lips, then separated it, and finally groaned in exasperation.

“Fuck, now I don’t know if I should drink or not.”

Nero’s honest frustrated reply made V begin to chuckle more relaxingly than all the times he had done it before.

“Be careful, Nero: if you drink, perhaps you will be admitting to have broken the rules imposed by the Order.”

Even if a faint blush still remained in Nero’s cheeks, product of the embarrassment but also the alcohol, when he talked the devil hunter didn’t sound as bothered as he pretended to be.

“We’ll finish sooner saying which ones I _didn’t_ break.”

When hearing Nero’s confession, V’s smile froze a little while his eyes inevitably went towards the jewel resting against Nero’s exposed chest.

“Yes, I presume that not staying pure until marriage would deserve a heavy punishment.”

V regretted his words the moment they left his mouth, because in his current state he couldn’t completely remove the bitterness from it. However, he didn’t have time to beat himself about such a mistake for long, because at that moment he noticed the way Nero gulped as the blush came back, and when seeing guilt spreading in the boy’s factions, he could feel his heart beating faster about the implications such reactions could have.

“Oi oi oi”, Griffon suddenly intervened as V’s eyes dug on Nero intensely, “could it be that the brat _—_ ”

“Never have I ever fallen asleep and refused to admit it.”

With that brusque question and change of topic Nero made evident he wanted to drop the previous matter, but V definitely didn’t want to. So, after taking a small sip, he talked again, his eyes never shifting from Nero’s face.

“Never have I ever slept with Kyrie.”

His purposely too direct question made Griffon squawk in stupor, and caused Nero to clench his jaw even more until V could perfectly hear the boy’s teeth gritting.

“What are you playing, V?”

Despite detecting the light warning in Nero’s voice, V’s tone didn’t falter when talking again, even if he could feel his heart hammering against his chest.

“The same game as you, Nero. But if you do not like the question, you can always withdraw.”

He knew he was manipulating Nero by adding that last sentence, knowing well that Nero’s excess of pride would never make him do such a thing. But V couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Not when it had been a while since the last time he had wanted to know the answer to a question so badly.

For a moment, V thought that Nero was going to refuse to answer. In fact, it entered the realms of possibility that Nero stormed out of the room, or even punched him for formulating again a question that he hadn’t the right to make. But V’s predictions failed, and eventually the silence that had fallen in the room, only interrupted by the radio sounding softly in the background, was broken when Nero exhaled a short sigh and left the glass on the bed untouched, without making any attempt to approach it to his lips.

The fact that Nero didn’t add anything else, clearly avoiding to look at him in order to stare at the mattress under them, forced V to suppress a gulp, because no other answer could have been clearer.

And then, Nero was talking again.

“So, tomorrow we’re getting up early, right? Maybe we should sleep then.”

V stared at Nero for a moment as an awkward silence settled in. The devil hunter had tried to talk with a casual tone but it was evident that, the same as before, he was trying to put an end to a conversation that he very much wanted dropped.

Part of V wanted to stop Nero from running away from it, to force the boy to talk about something that was Nero’s exclusive business and hadn’t the obligation to explain, and much less to _him_. But, for once, there was no doubt that reason accompanied Nero’s words. The priority at the moment was to be ready for the mission of the next day. Everything else was secondary, not to mention that making certain decisions when his mind was cloudy would surely provoke him to regret it the next day, and he didn’t want that. The list of things V regretted was considerable after all, and he didn’t want to make it be even longer.

So, he chose to nod in silence before speaking with a voice that didn’t betray in the least how close he had been to complicate things between them again.

“Yes, crashing in the car when we are so close because you have a hangover would be inconvenient.”

Nero snorted softly when hearing his comment, reaching forward with his hand to recover his t-shirt.

“Yep, it would.”

The devil hunter then stood up from the bed, his t-shirt hanging over his mechanical arm and the used glasses sustained in his other hand. V thought that Nero was going to leave directly, but at that moment the boy remained next to the bed, looking at V next as if he was hesitating to add something else.

They looked at each other for some seconds but at the end Nero simply muttered an amicable ‘ _Good night, V_ ’ and abandoned the room. Since Nero wasn’t the kind of man who thought much before talking or acting, V decided that whatever Nero planned to say hadn’t been that important. Besides, it wasn’t as if the boy was going to say what V wanted to hear.

The door had barely closed behind Nero when Griffon exhaled a frustrated low caw, startling V.

“Damn it, V, what the hell were you thinking?!”

V blinked, confused.

“I beg your pardon?”

Griffon landed on the bed in front of him, taking the place Nero himself had occupied while Shadow remained sitting on the floor, his eyes shifting from V to Griffon.

“‘ _I beg your pardon_ ’ my feathers! You lost your chance to ask! You should have insisted on playing!”

V pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before talking with a tone that didn’t betray his disappointment.

“I doubt doing such a thing had been wise”, he left the practically empty bottle of wine on the table before entering the bed, “he could have begun to make compromising questions about us.”

“Oh yes, it is clear he would by basing on the last question he chose.”

V ignored Griffon’s sarcasm to lie on his side, facing the bedside table. He turned off the small lamp and closed his eyes, ready to sleep.

However, his familiars didn’t come back to him, and he perfectly knew why.

“What question you'd have chosen?”

For a second V thought Griffon would have the nerve of ignoring, but eventually the bird talked with a patient, fond tone.

“You know which one, V.”

He did, and as if mocking him, that question began to dance behind his closed eyes:

 

‘ _Never have I ever wanted someone who wasn’t my fiancée._ ’

 

V gritted his teeth, opening his eyes again in the darkness. Yes, of course he had wanted to ask that.

He had wanted to find out why Nero had been unable to lie with that woman he supposedly had loved for so many years.

He had desired to discover if Nero’s attitude during the last fight could have been the result of jealousy, as Griffon suggested then.

He had been willing to learn if the thoughts that were rounding Nero’s head when trying and failing to sleep with Kyrie had been remotely similar to the ones _he_ had forced himself to bury not to face them.

He had craved to know that he wasn’t the only one harboring those feelings that Vergil had fought to avoid all his life, and that V refused to accept because once he did, he knew there would be no turning back.

“It’s better this way”, V simply said with a security he was unable to entirely feel.

He got ready for Griffon to keep protesting, but the bird only sighed and pecked at the back of his head once, causing V’s eyes to open more in surprise. Griffon muttered then a resigned ‘ _Stubborn_ ’, finally vanishing so that V could get some rest. Shadow also left soon afterwards, though the way the panther softly rubbed his head against his shoulder as a goodbye was way gentler.

When being left alone, V’s eyes searched in the darkness that door that connected his room with Nero’s. Mere meters separated him from the devil hunter, and despite his instinct of self-preservation, part of V _still_ wanted to stand up and cross it. To continue with that conversation he had allowed Nero to finish.

But eventually, V stayed inside his bed. Alone. Because as much as he yearned to ask, he was too afraid of the answers he could obtain. He couldn’t allow himself to raise his hopes up just so that they were crushed again. Doing that would be like drawing a target directly on him just to wait to be irremediably hurt.

He was scared to make a new jump to find void at the other side, as usual.

V couldn’t allow that to happen. Not again. He knew it wasn’t the first time he made such a resolution and failed in the process, but still he wouldn’t stop trying. He hadn’t any other choice after all.

That night, V’s sleep was interrupted as usual, charged with dreams in which, this time, the young devil hunter acquired a greater role.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up till this point, this is the chapter I have re-written the most because I had many doubts about how to finish it, so I hope you have liked it <3 <3  
> Stay tuned for the next chapter since it will be intense :)


	19. (June 3) - This was a mistake

**_June 3 - 11:07 a.m._ **

“Nero, turn left. _Left_.”

After exhaling a curse, Nero realized he was about to miss the next exit _again_ and rapidly moved the wheel to the direction V had indicated with impatience. The violent turn forced the invoker to grab the car handle to avoid leaning much towards him. Shadow did the same thing by throwing a tentacle towards his handle, the only one who was about to suffer from Nero’s clumsiness being Griffon, who had been sitting in the back seat with the panther and who squawked when he was about to fall in the empty spot situated between the back and front seats.

“Damn it, kid, at this rate we’ll be dead before even reaching the mountain!”

“For once, I agree”, Nero felt V’s eyes on him while talking, “this is the fifth time that you almost take the wrong way for being too slow in your reactions. Are you sure you are in good condition to proceed?”

“I’m fine”, Nero regretted immediately to snap that answer, since both V and Griffon were in their right to doubt his current capacity of continuing with the mission, so he made sure to soften his tone after sighing with annoyance, “I just have the damn sun in front of me and it’s difficult to drive.”

V hummed to himself and Nero feared that the invoker insisted on the matter when hearing his ridiculous explanation.

“If you say so”, the tension invading his body decreased when V’s tone turned ironic, “but there is nothing wrong with admitting feeling sick for not holding up your liquor as much as you said you could.”

Nero was initially tempted to refute V’s comment, but he decided it was better to snort and pretend that a hangover was the reason of his distracted attitude. He made sure to pay extra attention to the indications that followed during the next minutes, correctly taking the last turn towards a more irregular, steep road that lead up to the Mulwin Peaks.

The good news was that the last stretch to the area where they would be forced to leave the car was practically a straight line, so there was no chance that Nero could screw it up while driving. The bad news was that the moment silence reigned in the car, Nero’s thoughts came back to that last round that had put an end to the drinking game and that marked the start of a restless night:

‘ _Never have I ever slept with Kyrie._ ’

The nervousness he felt when hearing those words coming from V’s mouth settled down again. When V said that, Nero had immediately adopted a defensive posture, pretending and wanting to be annoyed with the invoker for having chosen such an out of place sentence. However, when his moment to react took place, instead of getting angry with V, or demanding him to change the phrase, or simply withdrawing as the invoker himself suggested, he decided to answer with sincerity.

Truth to be told, he was already a little drunk by then, so technically he could blame the alcohol for having decided to play along, instead of snapping that what he did or not with Kyrie wasn’t V’s damn business. But, deep inside, Nero knew that those justifications were simple excuses, because at the end of the turn he had decided to answer. And he had done it for V. Or, better said, for the expression that V had showed while formulating his question. The invoker had looked so eager to know his answer that Nero had been unable to lie.

And then, as embarrassing as it was, he had been unable to face his own choice. He decided to end the game with the excuse of getting a sleep he didn’t manage to have, all because he had been scared shitless about V making a three-letters question he had wanted to avoid answering.

Since his times as a Knight, Nero had always been unable to stand cowards. He did understand that some people were weaker than others, and that some of them could get scared in battle. After all, he knew that not everyone was like him: fighting without mattering how many enemies there were or how strong they were. So, as long as those people overcame their fears and gave their all in combat, they had always had Nero’s respect, on some level at least.

Nero had never run away from a battle. He had never run away from _anything_. But last night, in V’s room, he did. Because how the hell was he supposed to tell V that the reason why he had been unable to sleep with Kyrie was _him_? How the fuck was he going to confess that, while having Kyrie in his arms, his mind kept coming back to V, because at the moment he couldn’t fucking stand the idea of the man being caring about someone else that wasn’t him?

“Oh crap, don’t tell me that we are going to go [_there_](https://arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/SQAOMEJBCJDIZGZF63KFPXICP4.jpg).”

Griffon’s voice made Nero automatically stop thinking about anything else that wasn’t the driving, since they were forced to go through a too narrow path and he couldn’t allow himself to get distracted. A slip would make them go running down a cliff and, as the bird had rapidly pointed out, ‘he could only act as V’s parachute’, so Nero reduced the speed considerably, driving carefully until they reached a [safer zone](http://milfordart.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/on-the-skippers-road.jpg) where they had to stop the vehicle in order to continue.

“Well, at least your crapulence did not stop you from bringing us here safely.”

Usually, Nero would have immediately retorted something when hearing V’s mocking comment (probably asking what the fuck ‘crapulence’ mean), but he didn’t want to risk that his reply sounded forced, so he merely nodded and stepped down the car, missing the way V frowned lightly.

While Shadow and Griffon manifested outside, Nero approached the trunk to recover his sword and grab the supplies V had left prepared beforehand not to wear excessive weight. He was about to close the backpack when his eyes stopped in one of the food containers, full of monster fluid in the process of crystallizing.

Automatically, his mind came back to Mallet, concretely to the day he woke up in Pitchbale hospital and learned that V had used all the remaining antidote on him. That incident had surely marked a turning point in their relationship, and from then on, even with their ups and downs, his connection with V had never stopped growing, to the point that topics that had always been taboo for him, such as the parents he never came to know or what happened to Credo, came afloat naturally with the invoker.

And last night, Nero had finally realized what the main reason for it was, which far from making feel at ease, only made the process of sleeping more difficult: he liked that V cared about him. He _wanted_ V to care about him. When the journey started, he didn’t give a crap about how V felt towards him, or if the man liked him or not. As long as they working together guaranteed that they would defeat that arrogant bastard who called himself the Demon King, Nero didn’t particularly mind if V saw him as a tool to use, because he himself didn’t care much about V either.

However, now, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Now, the idea that the invoker could only care about him because of his value to the mission made _him_ feel like crap. And Nero wasn’t stupid or blind: he knew that the invoker cared. Otherwise, V could have simply left him behind in Mallet. But, as selfish as it sounded, it wasn’t enough.

V’s priority kept being his mission, and Nero was pretty sure that in case of worse coming to worst, the invoker would do whatever it took to see it fulfilled, even if that meant sacrificing something. Someone. _Him_. And such a thought was frustrating, discouraging even, because for him V had become more important to him than any fucking mission they could ever face, and he was sure he wouldn’t hesitate in fighting tooth and nail with and for him in case he was in danger.

“Nero.”

At that moment V, who had left the car without him noticing, tapped his shoulder with the top of his cane in order to call for his attention, and even if the gesture itself had been rather gentle Nero felt his heart in his throat for a moment for being so suddenly awakened from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”, he tried to talk normally, but V’s inquisitive gaze told him it hadn’t worked.

“Is everything alright?”, the invoker’s tone indicated he already knew the answer was negative, which was confirmed by his following words, “you’ve been quite absent during the trip, not to mention all your distractions.”

Nero suppressed a gulp, knowing that denying V’s words would rise even more suspicious. So, he went with a half-truth.

“I couldn’t sleep last night”, Nero pretended to be busy by checking that everything was inside the backpack in order to avoid V’s gaze, “I guess Pitchbale’s wine was a stronger shit than I thought and my stomach didn’t take it well but I’m fine now”, he looked at V again with a reassuring smirk, “so the worst that can happen is that at some point I need to stray from the route for a while to take a dump.”

V’s predictable reaction when hearing his reply was to roll his eyes while Griffon muttered a disgusted ‘ _Gross_ ’. V signaled softly with his chin towards the start of the path, silently indicating to proceed, so Nero took the backpack and followed the invoker, suppressing a relieved sigh for having avoided the topic with his scatological reply.

Climbing up the mountain wasn’t as terrible as Nero had imagined. It was true that the path was rather [narrow](https://cdn-files.apstatic.com/hike/7061044_medium_1563814790.jpg), but during the first hour they just needed to walk while focusing on where to step not to lose foot, since the path was rather well defined. From then on, advancing was a little more complicated, since to reach certain areas some free climbing was required. Nero could overcome them with no difficulty, but V needed Griffon’s help several times.

During the two hours that followed, they made several stops when reaching a relatively safe zone in order to recover their breaths or drink a little. Nero also took a bite in one of those stops, grabbing the remaining gummies not to waste the actual food and causing V to look at him with a reproaching look.

“I doubt eating _that_ is recommendable for your stomach.”

Nero had practically forgotten by then his excuse of suffering from stomachache, but he was too tired _and_ hungry to be coherent about it.

“I guess the fresh air has helped it to cure it”, V offered him a skeptic look, but since the invoker needed to recover even more than him, he didn’t waste his energies in unnecessary talk.

After another hour, Nero was going to risk to ask V if there was _really_ a temple in that fucking mountain when the path took a turn further inside the mountain and some [ancient ruins](https://www.planetware.com/photos-large/TR/turkey-fethiye-lycian-tombs.jpg) that had been built inside the rock itself were revealed. 

“Well, it looks like a temple, right?”, Nero exhaled while leaning against the rocky surface, removing the sweat off his forehead with the back of his left hand. Fuck, June had only started but it was hot as hell, though probably the almost three hours of mountain walking had something to do with his clothes sticking to his body. Thankfully his coat was in the trunk but the sweater was beginning to bother him too.

Next to him, V began to fan his face with his hand. Nero couldn’t help to notice that V’s exposed skin was also damper, the remaining tattoos belonging to Nightmare that still covered his front being even more noticeable for the thin layer of sweat covering them. Nero’s eyes languidly trailed upwards, following V’s neck and continuing until reaching the invoker’s face. He found himself pushing back a gulp when seeing that V’s mouth was a little half-parted while this one recovered his breath, his usual pale cheeks looking now a little flushed for the exhaustion, and when V’s eyes travelled towards him to answer, Nero’s heart skipped a beat, since his thoughts had been about to wander towards dangerous grounds.

“Yes, it does”, V looked at Nero sardonically, “see, Nero? We were in the correct path.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief when hearing his condescending, lightly triumphant tone.

“Hey, I never said we were lost!”

“You didn’t need to: your skepticism was evident”, Nero was about to protest even if V was right, but the invoker addressed Griffon at that moment while pointing towards the ruins with his cane, “do you think you can take us there directly?”

Griffon exhaled a long, resigned sigh but didn’t protest while grabbing V’s wrist in order to lead them directly inside the ruins. The familiar _did_ protest though while transporting Nero, saying that he was too heavy despite Nero’s attempts of trying to blame the backpack and the sword for the extra weight.

Once inside the [ruins](https://slowtravelguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/St-Nicholas-Church.jpg), he and V began to walk towards the place that, once in the past, had surely been an altar. Shadow remained in the middle of the room in alert, focusing on detecting any fluctuations of demonic power that could take place. After all, the area looked about to collapse at any moment and the only apparent exit lead to the cliff, so being ambushed in that room would be quite dangerous and was something they should avoid at any cost.

“So, what are we looking for?”, Nero inquired while V began to examine the columns.

“According to the book we found in Mallet, this temple was used over the centuries in order to perform rituals, with the objective of obtaining more power in the wars taking place at the moment. If my theory is correct, instructions related to those ceremonies should be hidden somewhere in this room.”

Nero snorted, examining the two empty spaces behind the altar and checking that they were either covered or leading to a dead end.

“I guess that none of those rituals ended well.”

“Your guess is correct. During the thirty-seven rituals that were reported, the priest and the people involved in them were either killed or reported missing, which is very much the same.”

“Thirty-seven?!”, Nero repeated in stupor, causing V to avert his eyes from the column to offer him an amused smile.

“There is an old saying: ‘ _the man is the only animal that stumbles twice on the same stone_ ’.”

“Yeah, twice, not _thirty-seven_ ”, Nero retorted, crouching to better examine the small altar while V joined him, though in a standing position.

“Perhaps they thought they were good enough to succeed where others failed. Arrogance tends to lead to that kind of misfortunes after all.”

Nero turned his face when hearing V’s distant voice, catching the invoker with a blank stare. He couldn’t help to wonder if that was how V had obtained his familiars. Maybe something had gone wrong then, and as a result V had been debilitated. Although if that was the case and now he was only witnessing a shadow of the power V once came to have...damn, how powerful was the man before?

“Have you found something?”

Nero focused again when V crouched next to him.

“Yeah”, Nero shook a little the apparently fixed structure, making it tremble slightly, “I think there’s something hiding below.”

V just needed to look towards Shadow so that the panther approached obediently. Griffon also joined them, remaining over them while flapping his wings.

“Detect something, cat?”

Shadow shook his head negatively, so Nero and V placed their hands on the altar. After some attempts and a more thorough examination, they found out that the structure could slide more or less easily towards one of its sides. On the ground situated under the altar, there was a stone that stood above the others, literally, so Nero and V proceeded to remove it to show a dark gap. V immediately tried to introduce his hand, but Nero rapidly took his wrist, surprising V.

“What if it’s a trap?”

V arched an impressed eyebrow, indicating Shadow to use one of his tentacles to check the gap.

“You acting prudently? That’s a new one.”

Nero deadpanned at V while this one knelt completely on the ground to introduce his full arm inside the gap, once Shadow confirmed with a soft growl that it was safe to do so.

“Yeah, because you were super prudent by facing all those fucking demons alone.”

V rolled his eyes while leaning his hand on the stony floor to be able to reach deeper.

“You aren’t going to forget that incident, are you?”

Nero huffed.

“I thought you were dead, you dumbass. Of course I’m _not_ going to forget it.”

V stopped for a moment to fix his green eyes on him when his tone sounded unexpectedly bitter, after remembering how damn impotent he had felt, not knowing where V was and being unable to do anything to help him. Tension fell between him, charged this time with an unknown feeling that made Nero’s stomach tighten a little. Fortunately, it receded when V averting his eyes, in order to focus on recovering the content of the small hideout: an [old manuscript](https://today.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/HLB-W12_12036_silo-900x560.jpg) that looked rather fragile.

“Ohoho, it seems we found a treasure!”, Griffon said by landing on the altar to have a better view of their discovery.

“Do you think it will be useful?”, Nero said with anticipation while V carefully opened the book, deteriorated because of the moisture. The invoker didn’t say anything, and for some seconds the sound of the aged pages being turned by V’s fingers with delicacy was the only thing heard in the room.

When V reached half of the book, Nero was beginning to fear having found a simple relic, but a couple of pages after that Nero observed V’s concentrated expression change: his green eyes opened more and a small smirk appeared in his face while looking at him again.

“It seems so.”

Nero’s eyes followed the place V was pointing at, which corresponded to a half-erased but still recognizable sketch of an upside-down tree, together with several annotations in a language that he couldn’t identify but that V surely could.

“Do you think that’s the same tree Urizen invoked?”

“Well, it may be a little too soon to raise our hopes”, V closed the pages again, “but this looks pretty promising.”

Nero barked a laugh, removing the backpack from his shoulders to make space inside it to store their new finding,

“Damn, for once something goes according to plan. Maybe with a little of luck that book is all we need to kill that bastard this same week _—_ _ouch_!”, Nero rubbed the top of his head while glaring at Griffon, in the place the bird had pecked, “H-Hey, what the fuck was that for, stupid turkey?!”

“That’s for jinxing us”, Griffon offered as a mere explanation as V stood up with his cane help, keeping the manuscript in his other hand, “jeez, you should never say things like that if you don’t want bad things to happen _—_ ”

Griffon hadn’t finished speaking when Shadow, calmed a mere second ago, suddenly growled and arched his body with all his hair standing, conforming spikes. At that moment, Nero’s natural instinct to detect demonic presence and danger in general passed from zero to one hundred, making him extract Blue Rose while looking above them.

A lizard-like, armored demon, whose entire presence had been completely concealed up till that moment with some kind of advanced invisibility technique, revealed himself on the top of the column. The oversized creature was perched in a half-kneeling position, in a clear stance of hunt, and although Nero shot with his usual speed, the bullet impacted in empty air since the beast rapidly teleported behind him in order to attack with a blade that Nero was sure hadn’t been in his arm before.

“Slice ‘him.”

V’s command arrived in time, giving Nero enough time to avoid the attack as Shadow’s claws clashed against the demon’s strengthened arm.

“See?!”, Griffon snapped while beginning to throw bolts before the demon vanished again, “I told you something bad would happen!”

By then Nero had his sword in hand and had rapidly situated back to back with V so that they could avoid being attacked from behind.

“It has no sense that a Fury prowls in this kind of environment”, V commented then while Shadow and Griffon situated in front of him, ready to defend him when necessary, “someone has sent him to watch over the document.”

Nero snorted defiantly, his eyes scanning the room in concentration to try to guess the predator’s presence, although seeing how Shadow had been completely unable to detect that demon’s presence when being in his invisible form, the chances of him feeling the Fury were dim.

“Good then. That means that shit is important.”

As if wanting to confirm his swords, the Fury made himself partially visible again while teleporting from one side of the room to the other at a vertiginous speed, clearly wanting to distract them so that they couldn’t know from where the next attack would come from. The demon attacked V next, who wasn’t harmed thanks to Shadow withstanding the whole attack in his hedgehog form as Griffon threw bolts at the Fury as fast as possible, though most part of them missed because the demon was scarily fast.

“Damn it, this bastard is too annoying!”, Griffon squawked.

Nero turned his head to the side to look towards Shadow, seeing him breathing heavily.

“How is he?”

V shook his head.

“Not well. He is close to his limit. Two more of those attacks and he will enter dormant mode.”

“And I guess that your golem isn’t very useful here, huh?”

“No, he would be too slow. Not to mention that Nightmare’s apparitions are unpredictable and if he decides to land in this room instead of coming from the ground _—_ ”

“ _—_ the whole temple will go to shit, yeah, I get it.”

The Fury came back to his frenetic teleporting, getting ready for the next assault. Nero exhaled a curse, realizing that if V’s theory was correct and the demon was after the manuscript, surely he would focus his efforts on V, so there was only one thing to do.

“Hey, cat, chicken: do you think you both can get V out of here fast enough?”

V’s familiars nodded immediately, but the invoker turned his head to look at Nero with a frown, clearly disagreeing with the idea. However, V was unable to expose his protest because at that moment the Fury attacked again, at Nero this time. Fortunately, even if he still failed to detect the demon, his reflexes were fast enough to hit the blade with his sword so that they began to fight for dominance.

“Don’t fight with me on this, V”, Nero hissed through gritted teeth for the effort of keeping the Fury at bay, “we need to protect that manuscript so just go. I’ll see you outside when I kill this son of a bitch.”

“The kid is right, V”, Griffon said, unable to throw bolts towards the Fury because the risk of hitting Nero instead by accident was too high, “we should make the most of that thing being busy _—_ wait wait wait, V, what are you doing?!”

“Doing as you say. Take it back to the car. Shadow and I will stand behind.”

“But it’s too far away! I will need to use your energy and last time _—_ ”

“Then use it, but I’m not going to withdraw from this battle.”

Since Nero was busy stopping Fury’s merciless attacks while managing to deliver some on his own, he could only deduce what was happening behind him, which seemed to be V trusting the manuscript to Griffon. His suspicions were confirmed when out of the corner of his eye he saw the bird rapidly flying towards the exit, but before he could insist on handling it alone, he felt the hair in the back of his head to stand when feeling a new big presence emerging behind him.

“Oh damn, kid _, watch out_!”

Fast as lightning, Shadow appeared behind Nero to receive the lethal blow of the second Fury that had joined the first. The heavy impact instantly transformed the feline in a sphere as V had predicted. With the panther out of combat and Griffon being so close to the exit, V ended completely exposed, something that the new Fury didn’t hesitate to exploit.

As the Fury lunged against the invoker, Nero could just observe what happened next, since he had his hands full with his enemy and there was no way he could go to V in time.

He saw Griffon being forced to release the manuscript in order to take V out of the trajectory of the demon’s attack. He saw the manuscript falling in the air, almost in slow motion. He saw the other Fury’s attention immediately swift to the old book when this one reached the ground with a soft thump. And finally, he saw the demon lunge against the relic in order to tear it to pieces with a well delivered hit of his blade.

At that moment, the Fury that had been restlessly attacking Nero stopped doing so, and after interchanging a look with the other demon they both vanished as fast as they had appeared. V, who was standing in the furthest corner of the room after Griffon moved him there to put him safe, walked first towards Shadow’s sphere to recover his familiar. After that, he and Shadow began to walk towards the place where the book had been destroyed, while Nero was still assimilating what had just happened.

“Oh jeez”, Griffon said with a worried tone, flying over V as this one crouched to better examine the remaining of the practically irrecoverable manuscript, “y-you think we’ll be able to fix it?”

V sighed to himself, grabbing an extremely small piece of paper while Nero stared at the invoker, not believing that V could look so calm given the situation.

“I honestly doubt it”, V said as Nero finally recovered enough from his stupor to approach him with determination, “but there is still a small chance to recover the most relevant parts, so we should gather all the pieces in order to _—_ ”

“Why?”

When hearing his brusque question, V’s eyes looked up at him with confusion.

“Excuse me?”

Nero’s blue eyes dug in V, not to miss the slightest reaction.

“Why didn’t you go when I asked you to?”

V half-closed his eyes, his eyebrows knitting together. The invoker also stood up, surely not liking to be forced to stare at him from below.

“Nero, if you are daring to suggest it was my fault it was destroyed _—_ ”

“It was. If you had left instead of trying to send Griffon away, now the manuscript would be safe.”

V’s gloved hand grabbed the cane with such force that the leather sounded against the wooden stick.

“Yes, Nero, I agree”, V’s tone sounded calm, but the tension in his posture made evident that it was a fake serenity, “certainly the book would be in a clear better shape in case of having abandoned the scene sooner.”

Nero’s breath hitched when suddenly V approached his face towards him, in order to practically snarl the next words with such an uncharacteristic vehemence that Nero found himself gulping.

“But if I had done that, you would be _dead_. And my apologies to deliver the bad news to your ego, but if you were having trouble dealing with _just_ one Fury, what do you think it would have happened when the second appeared? If I hadn’t stayed, if I hadn’t ordered Shadow to protect _you_ , you wouldn’t be here right now. So, I think a ‘thank you’ would be in order, instead of you spitting out all that nonsense.”

V’s face when he finished talking was the pure picture of irritation, and his tone was, without a doubt, one of the coldest and most sarcastic that Nero had heard V use since meeting him.

However, the devil hunter’s only reaction was to stare at V with his heart beating hard against his chest, because right then V had talked as if he was dumb for even suggesting to have been left behind.

V had talked as if saving _him_ was the logical thing to do, and despite the invoker’s eyes were showing undeniably anger, Nero could distinguish something else in them: relief. _Relief_. The manuscript, one of the clues devoted to bring them closer to defeat Urizen, was lying there at their feet, maybe ruined beyond repair, and V looked _relieved_ because Nero was still there, alive.

Ultimately, saving him had been V’s priority over everything else, and there was no way that Nero could be indifferent to that.

“And now, if you have finished spelling absurdities aloud…”, V continued, putting some distance between them but keeping facing him, “...we should recover all these pieces quickly before those demons decide to come back to finish the job _—_ ”

The last words devoted to finish that sentence never came to life, dying in Nero’s mouth when he leaned forward in order to press his lips against V’s.

* * *

By when V realized what was happening, Nero’s lips had already left his. In fact, the gesture had been so unexpected and brief that V doubted for a moment if it had actually happened. After all, when finishing speaking V had assumed that Nero would feel bothered for emphatically stressing that _he_ had saved him, or that the boy tried to keep insisting on having been able to deal with everything alone without V’s help.

But Nero hadn’t done anything like that. And by basing on Nero’s own shocked expression and the vibrant red of his ears, V realized he hadn’t imagined anything.

Right then, Nero had really _kissed_ him, and even if the kiss itself could barely be considered as such, better entering the category of accidental brush of lips than a proper kiss, it managed to awaken something inside of V that caused his stomach to clench.

Something that caused him to let out a trembling sigh before leaning forward to capture Nero’s mouth with his again.

When feeling Nero’s intake of breath, V thought that perhaps the boy was going to pull back, or to push him away. So, he kept his eyes closed, waiting for the emptiness to come. But it didn’t. And when _he_ was the one in trying to separate again, it was Nero the one who immediately searched for his lips again, settling his human and mechanical hands in his hips as if not wanting to let him go.

V’s cane fell forgotten onto the ground when he placed both of his hands on Nero’s chest, enjoying how the muscle felt under the layers of clothing. V continued leading the kiss and settling the pace, and, surprisingly, Nero seemed fine with simply following. As the seconds passed, the kisses turned longer as the interval between them shortened, and V began to alternate nips and small licks at Nero’s lower lip between kiss and kiss without getting to deepen it, clearly intending to make Nero crave for more of what could come.

At some point, it seemed that V’s teasing played on his favor, because with a grunt that sounded half-annoyed and half-excited Nero pressed V against the nearest column with his characteristic brusqueness. A shiver ran down V’s spine when the violence of the action contrasted with the soft way the boy’s tongue began to trace his lower lip, V wasn’t sure if as a payback for his previous treatment or if Nero was simply testing the waters. His grip in Nero’s sweater increased at that moment. One hand travelled up to the back of Nero’s neck, grabbing it firmly before slowly parting his mouth, silently daring the boy to explore it.

V still didn’t know what could have motivated such a strong reaction in Nero, but honestly, he didn’t want to think too deeply about it. He was tired of thinking. The only thing V wanted at that moment was that Nero’s body pressed him harder against that column; that Nero used his competitivity to fight for the dominance of the deep kiss that was about to follow; that Nero suddenly put an end to his actions, and that with his blue eyes fixed on him _finally_ confirmed what he hadn’t dared to acknowledge yet.

At that moment, as if that last desire had been listened to, Nero’s lips abandoned his when the kiss promised to turn more intense. However, instead of looking at him as V had imagined he would, Nero simply looked down towards the ground. V did the same, the confused expression that had appeared in his face soon replaced by one of recognition when seeing Nero’s necklace there, standing out on the stone.

He didn’t know how that jewel had ended on the ground. Probably it had been his fault, from when he had grabbed the back of Nero’s neck, but V didn’t have time to keep thinking too much about such a trivial matter, being busy freezing when noticing the guilt bathing Nero’s face while looking towards his fiancée's present.

And then, understanding hit V like a cold wave.

What had just happened between them, Nero regretted it. It was obvious. A simple look to the boy’s face was enough to realize that surely Nero had acted impulsively, without thinking, and that even if initially he seemed to want the same than V, it was crystal clear he didn’t want it anymore.

When noticing this, V immediately returned his hands to the sides of his body as if Nero’s contact burned, wanting to avoid at any cost to be rejected because that would be the last straw to his already severely wounded pride. Because if Nero didn’t want him, the least he could do was to make sure the boy thought it was the same way around.

“So, we should place the pieces in a safe place”, V noticed Nero’s eyes fixed on him with stupor when he separated from the boy in order to approach the destroyed manuscript once again, “could you please pass me one of the food containers? I think it would be the easiest way to carry it.”

V also noticed then that his familiars had vanished at some point, probably after Nero did _that_. He was about to crouch on the floor to begin to recover the fragments when Nero talked with an incredulous tone.

“Are you kidding me?”

The invoker gritted his teeth when hearing the stupor in Nero’s voice. He looked towards the boy, trying to keep his composure when talking again.

“Come again?”

Nero opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before talking with an impatient tone.

“I mean if we’re gonna pretend that nothing happened.”

V felt his heart skip a beat, but his expression was a mask and his tone didn’t change at any moment while answering.

“Yes, because nothing _relevant_ has happened”, the firmness of his voice indicated that what he was going to say next wasn’t open to debate, “it is clear that the effects of the small party we held yesterday were still there, which surely affected our way to channel the adrenaline produced in our last battle, but there’s nothing else than that.”

Nero stared at V in astonishment.

“Adrenaline”, the boy exhaled an incredulous, humorless laugh while signaling between them, “that’s what you think this was? Just...adrenaline?”

V’s jaw clenched, feeling the urge of invoking his familiars only to throw them at Nero for being so utterly stupid. Didn’t the boy see that V was offering him on a silver platter the chance of ignoring their gigantic mistake? Apparently not. Perhaps the last battle had removed the remaining neurons in Nero’s brain, so V proceeded to make it extremely clear so that even him could understand it.

“Yes, I do. And I think you should take such an explanation as valid as well, Nero”, V’s tone turned threatening, “after all, considering the woman waiting for you at home, I hardly doubt you are able to find an explanation more satisfying than this one, don’t you think?”

Silence fell next, and then, after an initial moment of hesitation, Nero was clever enough to keep uncharacteristically silent while helping V gather the manuscript pieces, after recovering and storing his broken necklace in his pocket. V insulted himself internally when his heart skipped a beat when their fingers accidentally brushed a couple of times in the process, making him remember how Nero’s grip had felt on his hips.

They abandoned the temple with silence being their only companion. V tried to uselessly push away the disappointment that invaded him after Nero didn’t say _anything_ to refute his previous statement, which painfully clarified all the doubts he could still harbor about where Nero’s side belonged to. Coming back to the car took them half-of the time than the ascension, since they didn’t need to follow a specific path anymore to reach the temple and that allowed them to climb down through more accessible areas without V having to call his familiars, thing that he appreciated because for sure Griffon would have commented something about the impossible to mask tension that heavily hanged between Nero and him.

Saying that the trip in car was awkward was a complete understatement. At least, for better or worse, Nero drove way faster than when they were going towards the Peaks, managing to reach the inn in record time. They had barely entered the building and greeted the innkeeper when, after almost an hour and half of complete silence, Nero finally broke it while they were climbing the stairs.

“So, since recovering the manuscript will take a while and I doubt I can help you much with it, I was thinking in going on my own for a couple of days.”

By when Nero finished talking with an obviously pretended casual tone, they were in front of their rooms again.

“On your own”, V repeated, too tired to hide his suspicion while Nero nodded.

“Yeah. It’s been a while since I trained properly, so I was planning to spend a couple of days checking the forests around, to be prepared in case those giant lizards decide to attack again.”

Nero didn’t avert his eyes while talking, but something in the boy’s tone put V in alert. After all, V was so used to keep secrets that he could perfectly detect when someone else was doing it.

“Alright”, he simply said instead, offering Nero the room keys with his palm facing up, “I doubt I leave the inn too much during the next days anyway, so maybe it’s better if you keep them.”

Nero didn’t even spare a glance towards them.

“Nah, I don’t wanna lose them and I doubt I sleep here. I used to carry out these trainings in the Order and it was always more effective to spend the whole day and night outside. It helped to sharpen even more your reflexes, you know?”

The fact that Nero had rejected the keys so fast together with the too extensive, unasked explanations the boy was providing made V’s suspicions grow even more. He didn’t let it show though, and when mere minutes later he heard Nero abandoning his room in order to go downstairs, he let pass another minute before following him.

V was about to carefully climb down the last two steps of the stairs when he heard Nero talking with someone in a low tone, clearly trying to avoid being heard by him.

“Yes, I know it’s too sudden...Look, if there was another way, I wouldn’t be doing this...No, there’s no other way to fix it...Yes, I have to come back. Tonight.”

With each pause fell in the conversation, V tried to come up with an explanation that was different from the first that had automatically come to his mind. But when hearing the defeated tone that Nero used in the last sentence, he understood there wasn’t any other way to interpret it:

Nero was leaving, and it wasn’t very complicated to deduce what his destination was. That was why the boy had looked so secretive before while making up that blatant lie of him being out to train. And although V could rationally understand why Nero had taken such a decision, it didn’t change the oppressive feeling that spread within and the urge of wanting to confront Nero downstairs to initiate a battle that he didn’t plan to lose.

Because by basing on the way Nero left at the beginning of the journey after their first fight, V had assumed Nero was the straightforward type, the kind of person who would always say to your face either the good or bad things, not someone who would hide things or make up lies. That was how _he_ was, not Nero. But now that he had found out he was mistaken, V couldn’t help to feel betrayed, abandoned, and also angry with himself. Because if he hadn’t even been able to correctly assess Nero’s personality, he had probably been reading everything wrong until then. _Everything_.

At that moment V heard Nero hang up the phone, so he rapidly came back to his room. Seconds after V had closed his door all the silently he could, he heard Nero’s heavier steps getting close, and his heart stopped for a moment when the man knocked.

“V. I’m leaving now. I’ll be back in two days, okay?”

‘ _Liar_ ’, V thought with resentment, but his tone was neutral when answering next.

“Alright.”

“You’ll be here, right?”

V thought to himself that such a piece of information was completely irrelevant for Nero, since it was evident the boy wouldn’t be coming back, but he guessed that under the boy’s point of view, he had to keep pretending so that his lie wasn’t discovered.

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll leave most part of the supplies in my room. See you soon, V.”

‘ ** _Liar_** ’, V thought again, and he blamed himself when his voice didn’t sound as firm as he would like when answering Nero for surely the last time.

“Goodbye, Nero.”

Heavy steps sounded again and then, silence reigned in the room, which suddenly felt too small and claustrophobic. V took a deep breath and opened the door that connected to Nero’s room. As the boy had said, most part of the supplies were on the messed bed, together with that ridiculous stuffed animal. V seriously considered the option of tearing the toy apart, but eventually decided to let it be. Another proof of how weak he had become.

He then approached the door situated next to the bed, which led to a small balcony. He stepped outside in order to lean his arms on the railing, the cold breeze coming from the mountains helping in some way, since it suited the coldness he was feeling inside.

V wasn’t surprised when after some seconds his familiars manifested and Griffon landed on the railing, while Shadow managed to sit a little cramped in the remaining space of the balcony.

“Okay, this is unexpected”, Griffon began with a cautious voice while V’s look kept lost in the distance, “we thought that by now you and the kid would be _—_ ”

“He’s gone.”

A shocked pause followed and then, Griffon squawked a loud ‘ _WHAT?!_ ’ that V was already foreseeing.

“Wait, wait a minute: with ‘gone’ you mean he’s out to go grab some dinner or something, or you mean gone _gone_.”

V looked at Griffon with a strained smirk.

“What do you think?”

At any other moment, his sarcastic answer would have made Griffon to protest annoyingly, but the fact that the bird’s tone sounded confused and worried, made V feel even more irascible if possible.

“But why? What the hell happened? Last time Shadow and I saw you, it was evident that you were more than fine.”

V gritted his teeth when the incident in the temple came back to him, but he rapidly pushed away those images devoted not to happen again.

“Yes, you are right. We _were_ ”, he averted his eyes towards the street again while interlacing his fingers together, “but then Nero remembered his fiancée and, as you can guess, everything came to a stop.”

Griffon and Shadow interchanged a look before the bird talked again with a serious tone.

“Did he push you away?”, the option of answering affirmatively appeared in V’s mind so that the topic could be finally dropped, but the brief second it took him to make his mind was enough so that Griffon caught what had really happened, “so _you_ did.”

V clicked his tongue.

“Are you suggesting I should have waited for him to do it instead?”

“But you tried to even talk about it?”

V’s whole body tensed when hearing Griffon’s suggestion. He fixed his eyes on Griffon, his dangerous calm tone hinting it was unwise to keep insisting.

“There was nothing to talk about. You weren’t there. You didn’t see his face when he pulled away. It was evident he regretted it, and the fact that right now he is coming back to that woman proves that he does not possess the slightest doubt about with whom he wants to truly be.”

For once, Griffon was at a loss of words, and when V finished with a resentful tone that had nothing of the firmness or arrogance that had tinged it when starting to talk, the invoker was forced to take a deep trembling sigh to recover his breath.

After some seconds, when he was sure his voice wasn’t going to pathetically fail him, he shook his head softly while a shallow chuckle escaped his mouth.

“This was a mistake.”

“What exactly?”, Griffon inquired with a soft tone after a small pause when seeing V planned to leave it at that, while Shadow simply observed the scene with an apologetic expression that showed he would like to do more for V, “kissing him or pushing him away?”

“ _Everything_ ”, V snapped, unable to hide the resentment that tinged his words, “Starting this journey. Asking Nero to come with us. Letting him get close. Allowing myself to…”, he sighed, his knuckles turning almost white while grabbing the railway, “...to…”

“...fall for the kid?”

V froze, his heart coming to a stop for an instant. He glared at Griffon while opening his mouth, ready to refute such an outrageous thing.

But he couldn’t. So, he remained silent at the end.

Letting out another empty laugh, V turned his back to the view in order to lean against the railway with his hands still grabbing the metallic surface, looking at the ground without seeing it. He exhaled a new deep breath, thinking with self-mockery that, eventually, all his efforts had been useless.

It hadn’t mattered how much he had fought against it, or the excuses he had been building along the way, or the many times he had tried to ignore the evidence, because at the end he had been extremely naive, and utterly stupid, and undoubtedly human, and at that point it was futile to deny what it had been obvious for a while, even if he had refused to acknowledge it up till then:

That the relationship he had come to have with that boy whom he could barely stand at first had evolved in a way he could have never predicted.

And that he, without noticing and without asking for it, had developed feelings for Nero. For someone who would _never_ be his.

Clearly, such a development was something he hadn’t predicted. Feelings weren’t something he was used to deal with after all. They had always been something that had to be avoided, ignored, blocked, in order to make sure they wouldn’t be in their way to fulfill their purposes. That was the reason why Vergil had always forbidden himself from getting attached to people, and the reason why V decided to follow that example, since it was the definitive shield of self-preservation. The guarantee that they would never be hurt or weakened.

But then Nero came, that boy who always acted recklessly while boasting no matter the situation; who asked questions that people would take ages to formulate; who was excessively loud, and too brute, and too kind; who worried and cared about V even when he had made the most to be left on his own since the beginning; who had made V want to have something he was doing fine without.

Before that journey started, for Vergil and, as direct consequence, for V, it had been unthinkable to create a bond as strong as the one V thought to have created with Nero, since the mere thought of getting attached to that extent to a person, to someone who eventually they could lose, was too scary to even imagine.

Vergil had managed to live and survive alone. He had managed to ignore and pretend not having those human feelings that irremediably kept being inside him, dormant, hidden. But V couldn’t. Again, V had been too weak, and now he could perfectly understand why Vergil had eventually decided he wasn’t necessary anymore. As that old saying went, as a simple human he had tripped too many times because of Nero. Because no matter how many times he was resolved to keep his distance and his barriers up, Nero had always managed to lower them. Or, better said, to make _him_ lower them, which was even more dangerous.

V crossed his arms in front of his chest, as if doing that would provide him some kind of defense, but it was useless. There was no protection. There couldn’t be when the source of his distress was within himself.

All the people who had had the chance of interacting with Vergil had obtained the same impression: that the older son of Sparda was like ice, and they were right. Ice could be unpredictable, dangerous, and harmful, like Vergil himself was. But, at the same time, ice was incredibly fragile: everything left its imprint on it, and it could easily break apart.

V was _only_ one part of Vergil. The part that resulted to be the weakest, the most vulnerable. The part that didn’t have the energy to feel angry with Nero anymore because he was angrier with himself. The part that couldn’t even scold his familiars for encouraging him to be ‘more human’ just to discover what a big mistake doing that had been.

The part that, right then, couldn’t feel more broken.

“We should rest”, V managed to say with a tone that sounded raspier than usual for how tight his throat felt, “fixing the manuscript is going to be difficult, and we should recover our energies.”

V came back to his room. Several hours had passed since he had that rather light breakfast and he hadn’t eaten anything since then, so probably he should, to try to gather some strength. However, V simply entered the bed without bothering to change himself. He didn’t even remove his sandals. He was too tired to do anything that wasn’t collapsing, while hoping to forget about the world, and about himself, and about Urizen, and, especially, about Nero coming back to that woman while leaving him behind.

Before his thoughts acquired a darker turn, V felt the bed bending down its good centimeters because of a sudden extra weight that was accompanied by extreme warmth, and also a hurried ‘ _Jeez, make me some space, you giant cat_ ’ coming from the side of the pillow V wasn’t using.

The threads of sleepiness began to finally entangle in his mind at that moment, and V found himself thanking in a moment of debility whoever that decided he wasn’t strong enough to stand on his own in that form, and who granted those familiars to him.

Also, he thought that he couldn’t wait to be complete again in order to be ‘indifferent to hurting’ once again. Because, as Vergil had known very well since that day in which everything was taken away from them, feelings were too painful for him to bear alone.

* * *

Nero’s eyes opened wide when seeing that the helicopter Morrison had sent him was already waiting for him in the outskirts of Mulwin. It had taken a little to convince the man to do him that favor, mainly because he had been rather secretive about the whole thing, not wanting to reveal what the reason of the trip was. The same way, it had been a miracle that V had believed him, and although he still felt like shit for having lied to the man, he knew he hadn’t had any other choice. Not if he wanted to solve things between them once and for all.

He approached the helicopter with determined steps, and was surprised when the pilot was a rather attractive, red haired woman who provoked him the same vibes that Trish: she looked rather young but it was evident she was older than what her appearance wanted to show. In fact, his instincts were telling him she wasn’t completely human, but of course he would be a big, fat hypocrite if he didn’t trust her just for such a detail.

“Nero, right?”, the woman said once he entered the vehicle to take the copilot seat, “Lucia. Nice to meet you. Morrison didn’t lie: you and Dante really look alike.”

Nero half-closed his eyes while accepting the woman's handsake, trying to make memory because that name had rung a bell but he didn’t manage to remember in what context. What was evident was that that woman shared some kind of past story with Morrison or the Devil May Cry gang, because otherwise the old man wouldn’t have sent her there.

“Thanks for coming so fast”, he said while the woman started the chopper, which began to raise from the ground.

“You don’t need to thank me”, the woman said with a polite but extremely serious tone, “Morrison assured me that I would be paid more if I we arrived by tomorrow afternoon, so this is going to be a really profitable business for me.”

Nero sighed with resignation, guessing that when everything finished, he would be working for the man for quite some time in order to pay back that favor.

“So…”, Lucia looked at him when they were already flying towards the sea, “...could you confirm the destination to seal this deal?”

Nero felt his heart accelerate, knowing very well the consequences that such a trip would bring, and that things would be completely different when he came back. And he couldn’t lie, part of him was afraid for it.

However, he wasn’t going to run away from it. Not again. Because, after what happened in the temple, he couldn’t keep making up excuses, or trying to find justifications.

After what happened, he couldn't keep denying what his feelings for V were anymore.

And therefore, as painful as it was going to be what was about to come, he knew it was something he had to do, so Nero leaned against his seat, crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest, and spelled aloud his destination with nervousness but with the security that he was going to do the correct thing.

“Fortuna.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... A LOT of things happened in this chapter, but I guess that the most important thing was that _SOMETHING FINALLY HAPPENED_...even if it didn't last because where would be the drama in that ^^U? 
> 
> However, don't worry because everything will be fixed very, very soon. Also, I think it's pretty evident what the next chapter is going to be about, and for that reason it will be exclusively from Nero's POV.
> 
> I hope that, even if brief, you have enjoyed the boy's little moment <3 <3 In fact, I warn already that the rating of the fic is going to raise AT LAST as well, though that won't happen in the next chapter but in two <3 <3


	20. (June 4) - I wasn’t looking for it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As warned, this chapter is entirely from Nero's POV for obvious reasons...

**_June 4 - 9:21 p.m._ **

Nero took a new long, slightly trembling breath when distinguishing Kyrie’s familiar silhouette at the other side of the kitchen window, through the thin curtains that he himself accompanied her to buy, a couple of years ago already. He exhaled the air slowly, trying to calm down his racing heart, but deep inside he knew it was going to be an impossible task. No matter how hard he tried, he was sure that all the nervousness that he managed to push aside would resurface at full force when the moment of talking to Kyrie came.

At that moment, two smaller silhouettes joined Kyrie’s, and despite the situation Nero smiled a little when Julio and Kyle’s voices reached him.

Now he understood why the neighbors sometimes complained about them being too loudly. He was at the other side of the street and could perfectly hear Julio and Kyle trying to convince Kyrie to stay awake ‘a little bit more’, while in the meantime Carlo, the youngest orphan who soon would turn two, was provoking chaos all around as usual. It wouldn’t be surprising if a crashing sound broke into the night, since the kid was rather dangerous when getting overly enthusiastic and Nero had lost count of the ornaments that had accidentally broken because of the adorable but clumsy kid.

Nero gulped with difficulty when Kyrie’s pure laugh joined the voices of the children. After a couple of minutes of intense debate, the lights of the kitchen were turned off, followed by defeated protests that indicated the failure of the children’s negotiations after Kyrie surely decided to put them to sleep. He knew it would take them their good half-an-hour to finally get asleep, so Nero decided to wait.

However, when half-an-hour had passed since the first half-an-hour of waiting, Nero decided that he couldn’t keep postponing the inevitable. He couldn’t keep hesitating. It was due to that hesitation, to that stupidity of not realizing what his feelings were, to that fear of not accepting them the moment the first suspicion was planted in his mind, that people whom he claimed to care about had suffered, like V, or were about to do so, like Kyrie. And since he had messed it up already, the least he could was face the consequences of his actions and his decisions as soon as possible. He owed it to them. And, also, to himself.

After taking a last deep breath, Nero summoned up the courage to stop leaning against that streetlight in order to approach that house, _his_ house, while hoping that Kyrie hadn’t gone to sleep yet, since it was pretty late already.

At the end, reaching Fortuna before noon as Lucia had intended to do had been impossible, due to a storm that had forced them to stop for shelter in one of the neighbor cities, abandoning that way the fast, direct route they had been following during the night. The almost five hours of wait until the rain finally subsided had been tough to handle, but fortunately Lucia had agreed on sparring with him in the meantime, allowing Nero to release part of the nerve-wracking tension that had turned more and more intense the closest they were to their destination.

Theoretically, good weather was expected for the next day, so if everything went according to plan Nero would be back in Mulwin the next day before dusk, as he promised he would. However, that was a worry for the next day. There was something else he had to do before being able to confront V again, and the first step was to knock at that door situated in front of him. So, he closed his eyes, let his head fall back a little with his jaw clenched, and after opening his eyes again he raised his arm and knocked three times, firmly.

Nero didn’t know how many times he had crossed that threshold. Hundreds, that was for sure. Doing such a thing had always filled him with warmth, since it meant he was at home. There could be times in which he was out for days, even weeks in some rare occasions, but that house had always been the place he could come back to; the place where there always was someone waiting for him.

That house had always brought him peace. Happiness. But when he heard a familiar set of delicate steps approaching, the only thing Nero could feel was apprehension. Anxiety. Frustration. And when the door slowly opened, revealing Kyrie already dressed in her long, white night-dress with her red hair combed in a side, loose braid, there was a feeling that predominated above all the rest: guilt. An emotion that was potentiated when Kyrie exhaled a surprised gasp before enclosing her arms around his neck to hug him tightly.

“Oh my god, Nero”, he felt his chest tighten when Kyrie’s smile could be heard in her relieved voice, “you’re finally here.”

Nero finally returned the embrace with his eyes shut closed, wondering if Kyrie could feel how frantically his heart was beating right then.

“Before during dinner Julio and Kyle have been asking about you”, Kyrie continued saying in the same happy tone while beginning to separate from him, “if they had known that you were coming back tonight I’m sure they would have stayed awake no matter what I said—”

Kyrie interrupted herself when looking at him again, her smile slowly disappearing to give way to a disconcerted frown.

“Nero?”, Kyrie touched his cheek softly, in a gentle gesture that had always comforted him but that now it only made Nero feel worse with himself, “is everything okay?”

When hearing the concern in her voice, Nero insulted himself internally, aware that his attempts of hiding how he was feeling had miserably failed.

“Yes”, he immediately regretted saying such an impossible to believe lie, so he rectified while softly taking Kyrie’s hand still placed in his cheek, “no.”

Nero realized that trusting in his capacity of improvisation for _that_ situation had been a big mistake, because he found himself momentarily in blank, which obviously gave Kyrie time to worry even more.

“Did something happen after I left?”, Kyrie’s got pale while softly dragging him inside the house, beginning to examine him with more attention, “were you attacked again? Have you been hurt?”

“No no no”, Nero sighed, exasperated with himself for being screwing up until the very end, “well, yeah, we were attacked but we weren’t hurt.”

He didn’t realize he had included V in the sentence until it was too late, but Kyrie didn’t seem to give it more importance, probably feeling too relieved to notice.

“Thank goodness”, she continued talking, confusion back in her voice, “then what’s the problem? Is about that demon? Couldn’t you find anything useful about him?”

Automatically, Nero’s mind travelled to the manuscript that had been destroyed in that temple, and to what had happened after it. His heart raced against his chest, which felt tight once again for the pang of culpability that assaulted him after remembering that, while kissing V, everything else had seemed to vanish.

It hadn’t mattered where they were, or what their mission was, not even with _whom_ Nero was. The only thing that had mattered had been V reaching for him when he impulsively kissed him, the feeling of V’s mouth pressing against his own, the desperate grip of V’s fingers in his sweater. And in case his necklace hadn’t broken, as if it was a sign of what was about to come, Nero suspected that things would have gone further. He would have wanted that it went further, at the very least.

And _that_ was the signal he couldn’t ignore. The moment when Nero realized he couldn’t keep deluding himself, because if things were as it should be between Kyrie and him, there was no way he could have wanted more; wanted someone else not besides Kyrie, but _instead of_ Kyrie.

And now, the moment to be sincere about such feelings had come, and as much as he had tried to prepare for it during the trip, he wasn’t even close.

“No, it’s not about Urizen”, never before Nero had had such difficulties in keeping someone else’s gaze like right then, while staring into Kyrie’s brown worried eyes, “it’s about V.”

Kyrie’s eyes opened more for a moment. Confusion was still visible in them and also something else that Nero wasn’t able to fully identify before she turned around with a soft ‘ _Let’s sit_ ’. He followed her inside, a little surprised that she chose the kitchen as the room to meet over the living room.

Once inside the [old kitchen](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/63/fe/eb/63feeb5922529e1a6a68e487f9f963a2.jpg) that Kyrie refused to reform, Nero automatically took the seat that faced the entrance, always used to have in view all the possible exits in case of having to react  in an emergency. Kyrie didn’t join him immediately, approaching the stove instead to prepare some tea.

During the minutes that the tea preparation lasted, none of them said anything, silence being the main protagonist. Kyrie remained next to the stove, her back turned to Nero while he was sitting at the table with his hands on the surface. A strange calm surrounded the small room, completely lacking of the tension Nero had been expecting to feel hanging between them. It was almost unnatural.

At some point, Kyrie reached for a couple of cups, served the tea on them, and after leaving them on the table she joined Nero, facing him instead of sitting in the chair next to him as she used to do.

Nero’s eyes finally shifted from the table to the steaming cup. Then, from the cup to Kyrie. And then, when seeing the resigned, serene acceptance in her expression, he realized that, somehow, she knew.

He didn’t know how, he didn’t know since when, but she knew.

“So, what happens with V?”

Nero felt his heart physically hurt when Kyrie formulated that question, because despite the softness that Kyrie’s voice kept holding in, there was undeniable sadness in it. A sadness that he was causing.

His hands turned into fists on the table and Nero had to avert his eyes for a moment in order to take a deep breath, while suppressing the urge of using his arm on himself as punishment because he was hurting Kyrie. He was causing pain to one of the most important people in his life, the one he swore Credo and himself to always protect from any harm, and he _hated_ himself for it.

The worst part was that, as bad as it sounded, there was nothing he could do to prevent it. The only thing Nero could at that moment was to look at Kyrie in the eye in order to admit that truth that she already knew, but that he definitely owed her to say aloud. So, he relaxed his hands again so that they simply leaned on the table surface and, while fixing his eyes on Kyrie’s, he talked with a tone that, despite sounding apologetic, didn’t hold any hesitation. Because there was no trace of doubt in his heart about how he felt for V. Not anymore.

“I love him.”

The words resounded loud in the room, the only noise that could be heard besides their breathings being the soft bubbling sound of the recently prepared teapot.

After a couple of seconds, during which Kyrie’s expression didn’t change, the woman averted her eyes from him and reached for one of the cups. She took it between her hands in order to take a slow, small sip, and when her eyes met Nero’s again, this one realized that Kyrie had probably done so to remove the tightness from her throat in order to be able to speak.

“In some way, I already knew this was going to happen. When I went to Pitchbale and I saw both of you there, dancing, I felt as if I was intruding. As if I was interrupting something just the two of you shared”, the resigned smile that appeared on her face was a mere shadow of the one Nero was used to see, “I felt that I had already lost you to him.”

The fact that he was expecting the way Kyrie pressed her lips together after talking in a useless attempt to prevent their trembling didn’t make it hurt less.

Nero thought that he would fucking sell his damn soul so that Kyrie stopped showing that expression; that he would gladly take that pain that she was going through for himself, to stand it alone. But he couldn’t. He only could sit there, waiting for Kyrie to talk again with a voice that sounded at the very edge of breaking.

“Can I ask you something?”, Nero froze when what it remained of Kyrie’s serene mask was shattered completely as tears began to freely run down her cheeks, “why?”, she closed her eyes and lowered her head a little to repeat that question, more to herself than for him, “why?”

Nero’s initial impulse was to stand up to hug her, and in fact he made the gesture of supporting his weight on his hands to go towards Kyrie, feeling his chest clenching when hearing that simple question formulated in such a faint voice.

However, eventually he sat on the chair again, his hands turning into fists again while continuing looking at one of the most important people in his life unable to pull herself together, after he destroyed all what they had been building for years with three simple words.

He averted his eyes to the side, because seeing Kyrie’s sorrowful expression was making incredibly difficult to think about an answer that was satisfying enough, even if he doubted it ever existed.

The problem was that there had never been nothing wrong between him and Kyrie. Absolutely nothing.

Apart from his tendency of exposing himself unnecessarily to dangerous situations just for the pleasure of a good fight, Nero had always liked to keep his private life simple. And his relationship with Kyrie was. They had grown up together as kids, had always cared about each other, and ending together as teenagers was something that had seemed fated to happen. It had been the natural course of things, so to speak.

Nero was aware that some people said that routine and the fact of spending so much time with the same person for so many years could end ruining a relationship, but for him it had never felt that way. He had enjoyed every single moment he had spent with Kyrie, and with the exception of that time in which he was about to lose her when she first learned about his demonic arm, he couldn’t possibly recall another unpleasant memory involving them.

It was true that he had never gone through a ‘falling-in-love’ phase per se, passing from being siblings to something else as years had passed by, but Nero had never had the least doubt that Kyrie would be the woman he would marry someday; the woman with whom he’d surely have kids when they were older; the woman with whom she’d spend the rest of his life. And if a month ago someone had asked him about it, he’d have answered without a doubt that he was looking forward to all of that.

Nico often said to him that Kyrie was too good for him, that she didn’t know ‘ _what a sweet girl like Kyrie was doing with a punk like him_ ’, and even if he always pretended to be offended when Nico ‘joked’ like that, Nero had always innerly agreed with the craftswoman. He had always thought that Kyrie was close to perfect, and that he was extremely lucky for having her by his side.

But then, V appeared, and as he spent time with the invoker, Nero’s assumptions about how his life was going to be began to slowly crumble until completely disappearing, like Kyrie’s smile after seeing his guilty expression when opening the door of the house that, maybe one day, would have been their permanent home. And then, suddenly, even if Kyrie’s kindness kept being there, and her sweetness, and her unconditional support and love, it wasn’t enough anymore. And the reason for it, the answer to the tearful question Kyrie had asked, was really simple and complicated at the same time:

She wasn’t V.

And as perfect as she could be, as perfect as Nero knew she was, he found himself falling for V, imperfections included, like he had never fallen for anyone before.

They hadn’t had the best start, and V’s permanent attitude of knowing more than anyone else used to get on his nerves at first. It still did sometimes, not to mention his insane obsession to keep secrets. But despite all their initial disagreements and fights, they kept growing closer. No matter how much V tried to set boundaries, or to put some distance between them, their connection only became stronger, until it reached a point that Nero began to wish it never disappeared. They kept collecting moments that, as days passed by, began to cross the limits of two people that were simply collaborating together to achieve a common goal.

Such as Nero forgetting everything that wasn’t V’s wellbeing after surviving Mallet; or that unexpected dance in the festival during which Nero asked V to stay with them, with _him_ ; or that hug in that destroyed inn, after V dared to suggest that him being alive or not had nothing to do with him; or that sunset they saw together, with Nero opening his heart to the invoker in a way he had never done with anyone before in a really long time; or that game, in which Nero ran away because he was too coward to accept the reality that ended exploding in his face and that now he was forced to face.

And then, the last boundary was crossed, and a kiss born from relief and impulsivity took place after Nero learnt that V truly cared about him. A kiss that the invoker responded as eagerly before denying it ever happened in the first place. A kiss that provoked that nothing could be back to be the same again.

If Nero was someone prone to listen to reason, maybe he would have waited to go visit Kyrie until thinking about his feelings more thoroughly, or even until he was sure about where V’s feelings were exactly standing. If Nero was like most part of the people, maybe he would never choose a man, who he had barely met, over Kyrie, with whom he had spent most part of his life. But Nero wasn’t most part of the people. Nero had always trusted his instincts, always giving priority to what his feelings and heart were saying. And right now, those were telling him that if, in mere three weeks, the invoker had become as important as the rest of the people that had been in his life for way longer than that, _that_ had to mean something.

They were shouting at him that, as impossible to believe as it had been in the start, V was the person with whom he truly wanted to be from then on.

Being with Kyrie had always been simple, and comfortable, and easy. Being with someone like V surely wouldn’t, but, as illogical as it was, that was what Nero had come to crave.

So, he couldn’t keep lying to Kyrie. To V. To himself. He may be an asshole, and an ungrateful jerk, and a lot of more things that Kyrie would never call him because she was too good to do so, but the only thing he wasn’t for sure was an hypocrite, and therefore he couldn’t keep being with Kyrie, someone who still was and would always be important to him, when his feelings towards V were so damn strong, and ran so damn deep.

“I don’t know, Kyrie”, Nero finally said after almost half-a-minute of silence of being lost in his thoughts, and since he was unable to come up with a satisfying answer, he simply answered without knowing well what to say, as usual, “I only know that I wasn’t looking for it. The moment this trip started I couldn’t count the damn days until ending it in order to kill Urizen asap, in order to come back with all of you, but somehow along the way I…I began to fall in love with V. And fuck, at first, I didn’t even know what was happening because it had no fucking sense: I already had _you_ , and we were just fine, damnit. It had no sense for me to love someone else so I tried to fight against it. And I really tried, but at the end I... I just—”

“...you couldn’t.”

Nero took a deep breath when Kyrie completed his sentence for him, with a sincere understanding tone that felt like another blow, and which destroyed his attempts of preventing his voice from trembling next.

“I’m sorry. I’m _really_ am, Kyrie. I never wanted to hurt you. I...”, ‘ _I really loved you, and still do_ ’, Nero wanted to say, but it felt wrong because even if it was the truth, he didn’t do it like Kyrie wanted him to. Not anymore, “...I’m sorry.”

While repeating that apology, Nero removed the pendant that Kyrie gave him years ago to place it on the table between them, feeling unworthy of carrying it anymore.

Kyrie followed the movement with her eyes, exhaled a long deep breath, and after delicately drying the tears from her eyes with the back of her fingers she talked again with a more calmed tone, as if Nero’s explanations, as useless as he thought they had been, had helped her in some way.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Nero”, Nero’s expression of disbelief caused her to chuckle softly, a little tremblingly, “it’s the truth. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Nero planned to debate that claim when, suddenly, Kyrie leaned over the table to place her hand on his and kept talking.

“You didn’t. You came all the way here to tell me that you…”, Kyrie made a soft pause before continuing the sentence, probably to prevent her voice from trembling, “...that your heart now belongs to someone else. You always know which path is right, and which is wrong, and for that reason even if you could have simply called, or sent me a message, you came back to me to tell me the truth. Doing that takes courage, Nero”, Kyrie pressed more his hand and offered him a soft, sincere smile, “until the very end, you really cared about the relationship we had, about us. And even if it hurts to see the end of it, I’m grateful for it.”

Nero felt a lump forming in his throat because, once again, Kyrie had proved to be even better than he already knew she was, than he _deserved_ she was.

“Kyrie…”

He tried to keep talking but he was fucking afraid that a sob escaped him, so he remained silent while Kyrie reached for the pendant he had left on the table.

“However, can I do you a last selfish request?”, Kyrie placed his pendant back in his hand again while looking at him in the eye, “Keep it. You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, but keep it with you. It’s a memory of the time we spent together after all”, the next smile she offered him was more bittersweet, as if she was unable to push her sadness completely away, “I hope that, at least, you don’t wish to forget about it.”

This time, Nero didn’t hesitate.

He stood up from the chair so violently that it fell backwards in order approach Kyrie, pulling her up from her chair and into his arms in a perhaps too emphatic hug because she exhaled a little breathless gasp.

“Of course I don’t want to forget”, he snarled, placing his human hand on the back of her head as his mechanic arm held her close against his chest, “I’ll never do, and I’ll _never_ stop caring about you or the guys either. That, if you still want me in your life.”

He heard Kyrie exhale a relieved, trembling chuckle against his shoulders before her arms enclosed around his waist.

“Of course I do, silly.”

Nero bit his lower lip when hearing Kyrie’s voice failing at the end. He kissed her temple once, but before he had the chance of thanking her for not pushing him aside even if he deserved it, or apologizing again, or both, he heard a familiar ruckus coming from the second floor.

He was still hugging Kyrie when Julio and Kyle appeared in the door frame with their respective eyes opened wide.

“ _Nero!!_ ”

After shouting his name with enthusiasm both boys ran towards him. Kyrie separated with a soft smile and Nero noticed the woman making the most of the children’s attention focused on him to discreetly remove the remaining tears out of her eyes.

“I will go to check on Carlo”, she announced with a voice that didn’t betray in the least she had been crying mere seconds ago, while Nero was almost tackled to the floor for the effusive hug Kyle and Julio gave him, “I’m sure he will want to see you too.”

Nero returned Kyle’s hug while Julio began to ask questions nonstop, but his eyes were still focused on Kyrie. The woman stopped at the start of the stairs leading to the bedrooms, looked at him with her eyes still looking a little bright and then nodded softly.

No more words were necessary between them to decide that explaining their new situation to the kids could wait for another moment.

* * *

After Julio and Kyle appeared in the living room, Kyrie left Carlo in his arms and announced she would retire to sleep. Nero spent almost two hours answering the children questions about his journey, knowing that it would be useless to send them to bed in their current enthusiastic state. However, when it had been some minutes since Carlo had fallen asleep in his arms, Kyle was snoring softly in the too small sofa of the living room, and even Julio was clearly losing the battle against the more and more frequent yawns, Nero announced that it was time to go to sleep for real.

Of course, Julio kept protesting because it wasn’t in the boy’s nature to simply obey when being told so, although he didn’t offer much resistance when Nero took his hand and dragged him upstairs. By when Nero had carefully placed Carlo in his cradle, Julio was already asleep in his bed. With a smile, Nero covered the kid with the sheets before making a new trip towards the living room in order to bring and tuck Kyle into bed as well, making sure to let his favorite toy next to the pillow.

After checking all the kids were asleep, Nero approached the door slowly not to wake them up. He looked towards the three sleeping figures a last time and after exhaling a sigh he closed the door behind him, swearing to himself that no matter how much things changed from then on, he wasn’t going to renounce to keep having those kids in his life.

When reaching the corridor, his steps automatically carried them to the room he had shared with Kyrie for so many years, just before remembering he didn’t belong there anymore.

Nero had trouble falling asleep that night, and not only because the sofa was a little too small for him, but also because of the perspective of meeting with V again.

After seeing V’s reaction when they kissed, the way the man had clearly preferred to pretend nothing had happened, Nero was positive that V wouldn’t have believed him in case of confessing his feelings, not when he was still with Kyrie. The same way, even if the option of telling V about coming back to Fortuna had crossed his mind, he had decided it was better if he simply had everything done before talking to V again. After all, by then he knew that with the invoker acts counted way more than words, and considering the invoker’s trusting issues Nero doubted the man had fully believed him in case of saying he was leaving to come back.

However, by doing things the way he had done it, V hadn’t any excuse not to accept the reality that had been there for a while, between them, but that until that day Nero hadn’t even put it into words. Words that, by the way, Nero should get ready to say because it was evident that V wasn’t going to be the one in saying them first.

Needless to say, the four hours of sleep Nero had before having to get ready to meet with Lucia were filled with nightmares involving both V and Kyrie. In most part of them he tried to confess to V just to discover that his mouth had disappeared, or that he couldn’t talk, or that the words simply didn’t obey him. Then, there were the ones in which V appeared giving his back to him, walking in front of him until disappearing further and further away, and no matter how fast Nero tried to run all his body felt too heavy to be able to reach him in time. And then, he dreamed about his conversation with Kyrie, but this time the woman appeared crying and accusing him of leaving her and the children behind, and the fact that such a thing could very much be how Kyrie had really felt inside made it be even worse.

By when Nero woke up at 4.45 a.m. he felt as if he hadn’t slept at all. He soon discovered though that he must have slept more than he thought he was, because when he entered the kitchen there was a food container on the table with a note addressed to him, written with Kyrie’s impeccable handwriting:

 

> _I would have liked to be here to say goodbye, but there was an urgency in the hospital and I had to leave soon._
> 
> _I took the liberty of preparing you some food for the trip. It’s not much, but I think it will be enough for a day._
> 
> _Remember to say the children goodbye before leaving. They have really missed you._
> 
> _Take care, Nero._
> 
> _Always yours,_
> 
> _Kyrie._

Nero’s jaw clenched while grabbing the piece of paper with more force, thinking for hundredth time that when people called Kyrie a saint, they weren’t exaggerating in the least.

However, when a new pang of guilt was about to assault him, he forced himself to push it away, because if he wanted that things worked between Kyrie and him from then on, he had to accept their current situation. And in order to do that, he had to stop blaming himself, and believe Kyrie’s words about not being sorry for loving someone else now because that wasn’t something he should apologize for.

With that resolution in mind, Nero packed the food inside his bag. He quickly left another note saying thank you to Kyrie while assuring her he would keep in touch. Then, he went upstairs to say goodbye to the children. Despite Kyrie’s words, when seeing Julio and Carlo sounded asleep, he couldn’t bring himself to wake them up, but Kyle’s eyes snapped opened the moment he approached the bed, so he could actually have some words with him and promise him that he would be back soon before finally leaving the house.

Lucia was already in the meeting point when he reached the outskirts of Fortuna, leaning against a light aircraft with her arms crossed.

“What happened with your helicopter?”, Nero asked with surprise while the woman reached for his bag to leave it in the back seats, as Nero did the same with his sword.

“In reparation. With all the refuels we had yesterday I thought it was safer to let it rest and acquire another transport.”

Nero cursed softly, entering the vehicle after Lucia.

“And I guess that this change will go to my expenses.”

Lucia nodded with the same serious expression, causing Nero to exhale a long breath while putting his belt on.

“But the good news is that we will travel faster. Probably we’ll be there before midday.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

Nero’s gruff comment made Lucia show the hint of a smile.

“Let’s hope that the weather behaves”, she started the light aircraft and began to elevate it in the air, “you can sleep if you want. You look as if you had a rough night, so I will warn you when we are about to arrive.”

Nero was about to protest, saying that he was fine, but at that moment a yawn escaped him and he decided that probably Lucia was right and decided to take a short rest.

The nap returned to be quite longer than expected, and when he opened his eyes again it was because Lucia was softly shaking his arm.

“Good morning”, she said, her expression as serious as usual but her tone sounding a little amused as Nero’s eyes opened wide while observing the familiar sight of Mulwin waiting for them ahead.

“Wait, we’ve arrived?!”

“Yes. The weather did behave”, Lucia offered Nero a hand, “it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

Still a little confused and definitely not feeling as ready as he should to see V again, Nero accepted the handshake and recovered his belongings before stepping down the vehicle. He waved his hand goodbye to the woman and was about to walk towards the inn when Lucia called his name, making him turn around.

“When you rescue Dante, could you give him a message?”, Nero nodded, and was surprised when seeing the woman’s cheeks darken a little, “tell him not to wait until a Balrog attacks to come visit us again. He will understand”, she added when seeing Nero’s utterly confused expression, before finally starting the aircraft to abandon the place.

Nero wondered to himself what kind of relationship Dante could have had with that woman, but almost immediately his attention returned to his current situation, which provoked his heart to begin to beat faster.

He took a deep breath, grabbed the backpack handle with more force and began walking towards the inn, getting ready to face V once and for all.

* * *

Nero blinked twice rapidly, trying to assimilate the words that the old innkeeper had just spelled while his heart began to hammer against his ribcage.

“Wait, what do you mean V’s gone?”

The old man looked at him apologetically, surely detecting his increasing anxiety.

“Well, he spent yesterday morning locked in his room, but then he came to the reception with his bag and announced he would be leaving.”

For the first time in a really long time, Nero had to actually remember that his lungs served to breath, and that surely allowing his nervousness to take over wasn’t the best way to solve the little problem of V having broken his promise of waiting for him.

He didn’t know what the hell had motivated V to do something like that but he knew he could spend hours trying to explain V’s way of thinking and still not being close to understand it, so he focused on what he could do at the moment.

“And did he say anything about where he was planning to go?”

“Yes, to Fokwell”, the old man said promptly, extracting a map and spending some (too long) seconds looking for it in order to circle it, “here it is. He said he needed some supplies to repair an old book and sadly we do not have what he needs here, so this was the closest city where he could find what he wanted.”

“And is there some kind of public transport to go there?”

The man shook his head negatively.

“I’m afraid that because of the last attacks, car is the only option.”

Nero cursed to himself. He should have waited before telling Lucia to go so soon, but now the harm was done, and there was only thing he could do.

“Thanks. I’ll be taking this.”

He practically ripped the map from the man’s hands while approaching the exit with fast steps, causing the man to blink in stupor before speaking.

“Wait, son, your friend took the car with him.”

“Figured it out”, Nero opened the door, offering the man a resigned but confident look, “at least the weather is nice for a walk.”

“A walk?”, the man’s eyes almost left his orbits, “but there’s almost 80 km between here and Fokwell! Even if you run you won’t be able to be there before night—”

“Take care, old man. Thanks for everything.”

After closing the door behind him, Nero was so busy examining the map in concentration that he missed the old man’s incredulous laugh followed by a knowing ‘ _young love is powerful’_.

Nero spent some minutes deciding the fastest route to arrive to Fokwell. The old man was right: it was going to be challenging to go there before nightfall, especially because the road was pretty steep, but if he had managed to kick the Savior’s ass and came alive from it, like hell if a damn race was going to beat him. So, he took a deep breath, grabbed his backpack with force, and after making sure Red Queen was secured, he began to run at full speed, determined to catch up with that insufferable invoker before he decided to jump to another place.

They had a pending conversation after all, and Nero wasn’t giving up until leaving it settled that same fucking day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, this chapter was too angsty, and not gonna lie, as much as I want Nero and V to be together it was kind of tough to make him break with Kyrie ^^U At least they keep being friends as hard as it's going to be for her at first.
> 
> On the bright side, Nero is going back to V to FINALLY SETTLE THINGS! So stay tuned for the next chapter because we'll have reconciliation, confession aaaand something else that surely some people have been craving <3 <3


	21. (June 5) - I know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically I was planning to write the new chapter of my Nero/V AU fic buuut I couldn't stop thinking about these two solving their differences already soo here you have a rather fast update <3 <3 :))
> 
>  **EDIT** : I just came across [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6kE62dTN7E) and it suits so much when V leaves to forget about Nero that I had to link it <3

**_June 5 - 11:27 p.m._ **

When the small table where V was sitting at while working on the manuscript trembled lightly, due to a thump coming from the neighbour room, V closed his eyes with his jaw clenched tight. 

Soon after that, rather exaggerated moans of two people clearly engaging themselves in a sexual act began to sound. Somehow, V had managed to tolerate the irritating noise of the creaking furniture the previous night, since at least those individuals had the decency of keeping the volume of voice relatively low. However, now that they had got bolder and apparently planned to announce the whole hotel about their activities, V wasn’t in the mood to stand it. And yes, perhaps the fact that _that_ night promised to be the third in a row of being unable to sleep had something to do with his irritability, but that didn’t stop him from standing up, grab his cane and snap his fingers once to invoke both Shadow and Griffon.

“Uhm, V?”, Griffon said hesitantly as the invoker abandoned the room with a brusquer demeanour than the one he usually displayed, “look, V, you are in your right to be upset, but killing them maybe is a little extreme—”

Griffon’s warning was interrupted when V used the top of his cane to loudly knock at the neighbour room. When a couple of seconds had passed and the strings of the bed at the other side kept sounding in a rhythmic manner together with even louder moans, V knocked again even more insistently, not stopping until hearing a masculine curse at the other side, followed by impatient steps.

“Look, whoever it’s at the other side, you better get the fuck out of here and let us enjoy our honeymoon if you don’t want to have the beat up of your life—”

By when the angry guest had finished speaking the door was already half-opened, allowing V to see a man around his mid thirties completely naked with the exception of a poorly wrapped sheet around his lower half. V didn’t have time to pay attention to any other details, because the moment he had the man within reach, he enclosed his left hand around the man’s throat while turning his cane upside down with his right hand, pushing him further inside the room while pointing at the man’s face with the piercing end of the stick.

The noisy guest, which in physical terms clearly surpassed V, turned instantly pale when finding himself face to face with V, his bravado disappearing completely while raising both of his trembling hands in the air in a surrendering posture. The man’s newly married wife began to exhale a high-pitched cry from the bed where she was covering herself with the remaining sheets, so with a movement of his head V commanded Shadow to enclose a tentacle around the woman’s mouth so that she stopped with that insufferable noise. 

“O-Okay, m-man, l-let’s talk about this”, the man began to say in a conciliatory, trembling tone, not knowing very well were to look: if at V, at Shadow or Griffon, “i-if it’s about money, y-you can take all you want so—”

“No, mister, it’s not money what I want”, V said in a calm voice that contrasted with the way he applied a little more of pressure to the man’s throat, making this one gasp, “the past two days have not been precisely easy, so what I want is to be granted with a simple, peaceful night of sleep, thing that you both have been preventing from happening since yesterday with your night activities. So, if you do not wish that your marriage finishes even before having started, I would greatly advise you to keep your volume of voice non-existent, or, if you prefer to avoid any unnecessary risks…”, V approached his face more to the sweating man’s one to hiss the next words threateningly, “...perhaps _you_ should get ‘the fuck out of here’.”

V released the man brusquely, who together with his wife seemed to decide that the second option was the best because without wasting any time in dressing themselves properly they rapidly took their belongings and speeded out of the room, muttering hurried apologies on their way down the corridor. 

When silence _finally_ reigned again, V exhaled a long sigh with his eyes closed before returning to his room, followed by his familiars who were unexpectedly quiet.

“What?”, V asked once when they were back in his [ room ](https://www.newsheridan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/newsheridanA031.jpg) again, with a tone that came out defensive, 

“Nothing”, Griffon answered with a voice that clearly showed there actually was something, which he proceeded to explain next, “just that maaaaybe being locked here is beginning to affect you, so what about getting some fresh air? You know, to release your pent up stress.”

“I’m _not_ stressed.”

“Yes, sure, because threatening a man to death for being noisy is something completely normal to do.”

V glared at Griffon, but he had the feeling that answering the bird would only serve to strengthen the familiar’s argument, so he decided to return to his table in silence, sitting down again in order to continue with the puzzle spread across the surface. 

The previous morning, V had woken up extremely early in order to keep himself busy as soon as possible, in order to prevent his thoughts from wandering too much about useless topics. A visit around Mulwin convinced him that the innkeeper hadn’t lied about the village being completely empty after the news of the demons attacking spread. Only a couple of shops remained opened but neither of them had what he needed, since recovering the manuscript or, at least, the pages he was interested in, would require some materials of certain specialization which were difficult to find in a common, isolated village.

So, after talking with the innkeeper V decided to try luck in the closest biggest city around. Arriving there had been quite an adventure on its own, since V had never driven anything with wheels and the process was more complicated than V had foreseen. After the sixth time of being about to crash into a tree, V was beginning to seriously consider the option of travelling there by stepping on Shadow. At the end though, the little faith his familiars had in his driving skills made V stubbornly refuse to abandon the vehicle, which resulted in them arriving at [ Fokwell ](https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2841087/size/tl-horizontal_main.jpg) in twice of the time it should have taken them to be there.

At least, the tension suffered by their familiars caused both Griffon and Shadow to vanish the moment V reached the hotel safe and sound, so he could be on his own during the rest of the afternoon. The new city was considerably bigger than Mulwin, so V hadn’t much trouble in finding the necessary materials such as a small brush, tweezers, a rather potent lens and specialized glue. After gathering everything, he had spent the rest of the day locked in the room repairing the manuscript, only stopping briefly to eat part of his supplies before tirelessly continuing. 

Despite feeling rather exhausted by the end of the day, V didn’t sleep well, because even if when being awake he somehow managed to control his thoughts when they wanted to travel back to certain someone, the dreams that visited him were impossible to control. So, after four hours of interrupted sleep and of waking up extremely frustrated for being missing something, _someone_ , he shouldn’t have even desired in the first place, V woke up again to continue with his task in hand even if he sun hadn’t even arisen.

At least, the good news was that after an almost full day, he had managed to recover half of the most important page of the document: the one which talked about a tree that could very much be the one Urizen had managed to summon. At that rhythm, in another half a day he would be able to obtain something quite useful from the visit to that temple. However, even if such a perspective was objectively positive, V couldn’t feel to fear the moment in which the reparation was finished, since once his attention wasn’t as focused, the possibilities of him thinking about _that person_ again would exponentially grow.

Although, on the other hand, the soonest he knew what exactly that tree was, the soonest he would be able to search for another candidate able to face Urizen in order to be reborn as Vergil once and for all, finally forgetting about...

 

**_BAM BAM BAM BAM_ **

 

V jumped startled in his seat when the door rattled with so much force that for a moment he thought it would break.

“Oh jeez”, Griffon snapped from the bed, beginning to flap his wings while lowering his tone not to be heard, “you think those two have called for help or something?”

Innerly, V hoped Griffon was right to have an excuse to release that stress he had denied to have. 

At that moment, whoever was at the other side began to bang the door again. Since V wasn’t sure about how many people could be waiting at the other side or about their intentions, he decided to turn off the lights, approach the door and open it while remaining hidden behind it, cane in hand to be able to deliver a surprise attack in case it was necessary.

The moment the door was opened, the person at the other side stepped inside with heavy steps. Shadow immediately enclosed a tentacle around the newcomer’s feet, making him stomp loudly on the carpeted floor, and although V rapidly approached to threateningly place his cane against the fallen figure, he froze in place when hearing a familiar rude voice cursing from the floor.

“Wait wait wait, don’t tell me…”

While Griffon talked with a shocked voice V rapidly turned on the lights again with his heart racing, thinking there had to be any other kind of explanation to what his brain was telling him it was happening.

But there wasn’t, and when the room was illuminated again, the person who was standing up in the middle of the room was no other than a rather angry…

“...Nero?”, V muttered, his eyes opened at their maximum, because he couldn’t possibly believe what he was seeing yet.

However, the snort the devil hunter exhaled while approaching the bedside table in order to recover a water bottle from it sounded rather real, and convinced V that he wasn’t imagining anything: Nero was there. He didn’t know why, but for some reason Nero was back. And although the first automatic feeling invading him was relief for seeing the boy again, almost immediately it was replaced by deep irritation. 

He had spent almost two days forcing himself not to think about Nero, trying to forget about what had happened, and now the boy’s presence had ruined all his efforts in a single instant.

It was beyond frustrating.

“Damn, of course today had to be the hottest fucking day of the year”, Nero emptied half of the bottle in one long sip and the rest on his head before brusquely removing his sword, letting it fall on the floor as V looked at Nero with his jaw tense, “and among all the hotels in Fokwell you had to choose the one who is at the other fucking side of the city entrance, huh?”

“What are you doing here?”

Nero, who was removing his coat, stared at V in disbelief, while Shadow closed discreetly the door and Griffon observed the interchange in uncharacteristic silence.

“Oh, nothing: I only thought that a walk from Mulwin to Fokwell would be an awesome fucking way to spend the afternoon.”

As prone as he was to use sarcasm, V usually reacted rather bad when it was used on him. However, Nero’s words made his annoyance be momentarily replaced by confusion.

“Walk?”, it was at that moment that he fully noticed Nero’s state: the boy was drenched in sweat and his breathing was heavier than normal, as if the boy had rushed to reach the hotel, “have you come here, on foot, from Mulwin?”

Nero huffed, sitting on the bed to begin to remove his boots, that looked more about to break than ever.

“Yeah, because _someone_ took the car without warning”, the boy threw one of his boots at the other side of the room while proceeding to remove the other one, “so I hadn’t too many options, you know?”

V stared at Nero with his eyes half-closed, raising his chin with a skeptic expression.

“It’s impossible you have been able to cover that distance in such a short time.”

Nero raised his eyes from his boot to glare at V.

“I ran.”

“Still, there are 80 km between Mulwin and Fokwall.”

Nero stood up again, after throwing the second boot next to the other one.

“I ran _fast_ ”, after snapping those words, Nero kept talking with an accusing tone, pointing at V with his finger in an emphatic gesture, “and right back at you, V: what the hell are _you_ doing here? Shit, I have been forced to walk through the fucking city up and down until finally finding you. For a moment I thought I wouldn’t be seeing you _again_. You said you’d wait for me, so why the fuck didn’t you stay in Mulwin?”

As Nero talked, the anger tinging his voice gave raise to concern, and then to a deep relief impossible to pretend. V realized then that Nero hadn’t lied two days ago when saying he would be back, and that probably he hadn’t done it either when assuring to have run that distance in order to meet him again. Right then, he looked desperate enough to have done so.

V felt the threat of a hope that he knew shouldn’t hold trying to break his way through his suspicion, so he crushed it immediately and decided to answer Nero’s question with his best neutral tone, determined not to repeat his previous mistakes ever again.

“I didn’t stay because I found hard to believe you were ever coming back.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide in stupor, before frowning without understanding.

“What? Why the hell did you think that?”

V tried that his tone kept sounding indifferent, but it came out harsher than he intended nevertheless.

“You were returning to Fortuna.”

V talked with a definite tone, as if saying that would be enough to explain everything.

“Wait, so you spied where I was going?”, Nero commented with a frown, having the nerve to feel annoyed for V eavesdropping, so when the invoker talked again a reproaching coldness dripping from any one of his words.

“Yes, because you were obviously lying about going away to train. And considering your destination and your reluctance to say the truth about your intentions, it was evident that you intended to put an end to the journey and come back with your fiancée.”

Nero exhaled then an exasperated sigh that was more addressed to himself than to V. At least, Nero had the decency of looking quite guilty before talking again.

“Look, I’m sorry I lied, okay?”, Nero sounded sincere as well, but still V’s attitude kept being wary while listening to the boy as this one struggled to find the words, “but there was something I needed to do there, and in case of telling you about it…”, Nero exhaled a short sigh, scratching the back of his head before shrugging, “...I honestly wasn’t sure that you didn’t decide to leave nevertheless.”

V hummed, unconvinced, and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Well, that ‘something’ had to be extremely important if it required you to go there in such a rush.”

Nero gulped subtly, exhaling a short breath before nodding, and although it definitely wasn’t the first time that the boy held his gaze, the intensity that Nero’s eyes carried at that moment had something new that put V in tension, since he was unable to read what the boy was thinking at that moment.

“Yeah, it was.”

V was regretting already to have pressed the matter, because he had an approximate idea about what the reason of such an improvised journey could be and, if he was right, he did _not_ want to hear any more details about it.

“Well, I hope you managed to settle it then”, V commented in a tone that couldn’t sound less sincere even if he tried, while approaching the table at the other side of the room to give his back to Nero, who kept standing in front of the bed, “and now, I don’t want to be rude but it’s pretty late, so I would like to get some rest to continue with this tomorrow. I think there were still some available rooms in the hotel so if you talk to the receptionist I’m sure she—”

 

“We broke up.”

 

When Nero spelled those words, time froze. And so did V when he was about to sit at his desk again.

During the following seconds V couldn’t do anything but stare without seeing at the multiple small pieces of paper that he still had to reconstruct, before slowly turning around to face Nero again with the most astonished expression he (and surely Vergil) had ever showed.

“That you did what?”, V asked while furiously analyzing Nero’s words, trying to find another meaning that wasn’t the one that had first appeared in his mind because it _couldn’t_ be. 

In fact, he was so focused on staring at Nero’s surprisingly serious expression that he missed the way Griffon had gasped when hearing the boy, and how Shadow enclosed a tentacle around the crow’s beak to prevent him from making another noise.

“We broke up”, Nero repeated, sounding more serious than ever, before shaking his head, as if disagreeing with his own words, “ _I_ broke up with Kyrie. I went to see her to tell her that we couldn’t be together anymore.”

V swallowed with difficulty, one of his hands passing to grab the back of the chair tightly in order to get a hold onto something. 

“You lie.”

It was the first time that V almost snarled instead of talking, causing Nero’s eyes to open more for a moment before looking at V while frowning with irritation.

“What?! I’m not!”

“Yes, you are.”

“V, what other fucking motive could I have to go there and then come back?”

“Honestly, it’s none of my concern or interest”, V coldly said, his eyes burying on a particular point of Nero’s chest, “but if you were saying the truth, I don’t see a motive why you would be still wearing _that_.”

Nero followed his eyes, clenching his jaw while looking at his fiancée’s pendant during a couple of seconds. V was expecting to hear another pathetic excuse coming from Nero when this one brusquely removed his pendant in order to throw it at V, who caught it in a reflex action.

V blinked surprised, looking first at the pendant and then at Nero’s stubborn expression.

“What are you doing?”

Nero crossed his arms, still sustaining his gaze.

“You don’t believe me because I have _that_ , right?”, the devil hunter pointed at the pendant that was now in V’s hand with his chin, “go ahead. Do the hell you want with it.”

V blinked again.

“What I want?”

“Yes.”

“Even destroy it?”

Hesitation passed through Nero’s eyes, but almost immediately the devil hunter nodded again.

“Yes.”

V half-closed his eyes to look at Nero inquisitively, evaluating him.

“I thought it was important to you.”

“It _is_ important to me”, Nero rectified immediately, “that’s a symbol of what Kyrie and I had, and despite the breakup that’s something I will always hold dear. But right now…”, V’s heart skipped a beat when, again, Nero’s eyes shone in that same weird way than before, “...it’s more important to make you believe me.”

V refused to let himself be affected by Nero’s words, because they were just that: words. They didn’t mean anything if they weren’t accompanying by actions, and V refused to deposit his trust in something as misinterpretable. Not anymore. So, he threw the pendant back at Nero, who frowned confused while catching it back.

“You do it then.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when realizing what V was asking him to do. Meanwhile, the invoker crossed his arms again and looked at Nero with his eyebrows raised more, unable to believe that Nero was able to prove his word.

As V had assumed, the devil hunter observed the pendant with a puzzled expression, grabbed it with force, and just when V was debating himself between sparing Nero by kicking him out of there or throwing his familiars at him for giving fake hopes to him, Nero suddenly threw the pendant in the air while rapidly extracting Blue Rose to point at the pendant with it. 

When beginning to hear the sound of the trigger being pulled, in another reflex act V raised his arm, silently commanding Griffon to throw a bolt that managed to counterattack the shot before it completely pulverized the pendant, which fell onto the carpet.

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh while V stared at Nero in astonishment because, this time, there was no room for doubt about Nero being telling the truth, because there was no way that Nero would have actually agreed of destroying that necklace, something he had always treasured, if he wasn’t so desperate to prove his point.

However, V wasn’t closed to understand why Nero could have done such a thing, and although deep inside he didn’t want to ask, his mouth talked on his own as Nero crouched to recover the pendant.

“Why did you do it?”

Nero looked at him as if he was dumb while safely leaving the pendant on the bedside table.

“I don’t know, maybe because you asked for it?”

“No, why did you break up?”, V impatiently clarified, unable to prevent the expectant tinge those words acquired.

Nero’s expression changed then: his frown softened, his jaw relaxed, and then, after exhaling a light nervous laugh, the boy spelled the next sentence in a snarling tone that, somehow, managed to sound affectionate.

“Because I’m in love with _you_ , you dumbass.”

If V thought his heartbeat couldn’t go faster, he was wrong, because when Nero snapped those words, with so much emphasis, and nervousness, and without the slightest sign of hesitation, V’s chest began to physically hurt for the way his heart was hammering against it. 

But still, as much as he wanted to believe Nero's answer, V refused to lower his guard. Despite how sincere Nero had sounded, despite the fact that the fondness in Nero’s tone was _impossible_ to fake, he kept his barriers up because V wasn’t convinced. He _couldn’t_ be convinced even if he wanted to, because for sure Nero was unaware of the weight those words carried.

“You don’t know what you are talking about”, V absolutely hated how his voice came out: insecure when it should be firm, hopeful instead of resigned, “you cannot make such a statement when you barely know anything about me.”

But, unlike him, Nero’s security didn’t falter one bit while talking again.

“Yeah, you’re right”, Nero admitted, “there are a lot of things I don’t know about you. A lot of things I still want to know. And honestly sometimes I would love to kick your ass until getting those answers. But despite that…”, Nero’s expression turned completely serious once again, “...I _know_ I know enough.”

“Oh, do you?”

Nero seemed to detect his sarcastic answer was an useless mechanism of defense because he didn’t look affected by it, simply continuing talking.

“I know you had it rough in the past, and that you were forced to do things you didn’t want to. But whoever did that to you, he overestimated how damn tough you are, because despite whatever you went through, you managed to survive. It couldn’t win against you.”

V snorted softly, crossing his arms again, as if doing that would help him not to be affected by Nero’s words.

“You are simply making assumptions based on theories”, he argued back, “you do not possess any evidence that justify any of those claims.”

When Nero took a small step towards him, V felt the urge of putting some distance between them, just to discover that doing so was useless because it would cause him to end caged against the wall. 

He had nowhere to run, or hide. He only could keep listening to Nero as the boy continue talking as if he hadn’t intervened.

“I know you always pay attention to details, even if you never show it. I know you hate to need help, and even more to ask for it, but even without stopping complaining you have helped me a bunch of times, going as far as risking your life for me.”

“I already told you that I cannot do anything about being observant, and I dare you to mention a person who actually likes asking for help”, V stubbornly counterattacked, “and about me helping you, of course I wasn’t going to let you die, you idiot. Who do you think would stop Urizen otherwise?”

Again, Nero ignored his insincere words while taking another step.

“I know you get defensive the moment someone says something good about you”, Nero’s comment made V’s jaw tense, realizing that was exactly what he had just done, “you handle better a critic that you can answer with sarcasm than a compliment. You would choose to have your ass kicked in a fight over a conversation that maybe makes you talk about yourself. And you always try to push the people who try to get close away, because you are afraid of caring and losing them.”

V gulped as Nero gave a third step. 

He couldn’t believe that he was experiencing defeat against Nero’s speech, but this time, he found himself unable to come up a proper reply in time, not when Nero was being so scarily accurate about everything, his silence allowing Nero to continue. 

“That’s why you always hide how you feel, and the reason why you pretend _not_ to care. And even if I’m sure that’s an habit that will keep making me fucking crazy, I have some bad news for you”, Nero’s eyes shined with determination, the same as his tone, “you may be cleverer than me, or tougher than me, even stronger than me, but _like hell_ if you’re more stubborn than me. So...”

Without warning, Nero closed the remaining distance between them in a couple of long steps, getting close enough to grab the lapels of his coat with both hands in a tight grip while snarling the next words.

“...sorry, V, but I’m not going anywhere. And if you wanna fight me on this and run to another city, go ahead and try, but I’ll do whatever it takes to find you again because I love you, you asshole. So I will destroy as many pendants as you need. I will fucking run up and down as many cities as necessary. Hell, I will fucking fight against whatever that tries to interfere to get to you again _but_ I’m not gonna give up on this. I’m not gonna give up on _us_. Because I think you also want me here. I believe you also wish me to stay. And I fucking hope that, even if you maybe never say it aloud,...”, V held his breath when the boy whispered the next sentence so close to his mouth that their lips almost brushed together, “... you also feel the fucking same about me.”

When Nero’s mouth captured his, V felt how each fiber of his body reacted to the contact, as if it was something he had been missing since the first moment they joined lips together. And then, all the excuses, justifications, and arguments V could have tried to keep using against Nero were shattered, lost into oblivion together with his remainings doubts about how Nero felt. About how _he_ felt. 

Nero had just said it himself. The boy was not with Kyrie anymore. He had chosen _him_ over her. He had promised him that he would stay, and that he wouldn’t rest to come back to him if V still tried to set that distance that, since the beginning, he had innerly wanted to lower. 

So V didn’t have to hide his feelings anymore. He didn’t need to be afraid of acknowledging, at last, what it had been obvious for a while now. Something that Nero also knew, and which the boy had snarled with confidence, as if defying V to deny it: 

That he was also in love with Nero.

That he loved Nero. 

And finally accepting that reality provoked a wave of relief and liberation so intense through his body that V was forced to get a hold on Nero’s hips to have some kind on anchor. The action made Nero sigh softly against his mouth. Nero released V’s coat in order to settle his hands on his arms, the cold metal of the devil hunter’s prosthetic hand on V’s displayed skin provoking another pleasant shiver out of him.

At that moment Nero tried to put an end to the kiss but V didn’t allow it, sealing their mouths together again. All the teasing present in their last kiss was replaced by the impatient need of tasting Nero properly once and for all, so V didn’t waste time in biting Nero’s lower lip, the unexpected action causing the devil hunter to gasp.

Making the most of Nero’s surprise, V simply dove in to open-mouth kiss him, languidly sliding his tongue through Nero’s half-parted lips. His stomach clenched when Nero groaned before avidly kissing back. As V had predicted, it didn’t pass more than a couple of seconds until Nero pressed him heatedly against the wall in order to try to lead the kiss, grunting again when, of course, V fought back to stop that from happening, tilting his head in order to assert his dominance.

Through the pleasant dizziness that those more and more intense and desperate kisses caused in his mind, V managed to think that in case of having been complete, _he_ would have never allowed that to happen. Vergil would have never allowed himself to surrender to these feelings that were always a source of weakness, neither to get involved in something as feeble as a relationship with the future always being so uncertain. 

Vergil wouldn’t have allowed himself to love, but V did.

Because he was not complete, not yet. And in his current form, with that body that was now heating up because of a pair of inexperienced but enthusiastic lips pressing against his own, he hadn’t been as strong willed as he should to resist himself to the warmth Nero provided. Otherwise, those feelings that he had come to harbor for Nero would have never been there in the first place. Or, in case of existing, Vergil would have managed to suppress them. 

But now they were there: in the open, unstoppable, and therefore, until V was complete again, until they managed to defeat Urizen, he would be human enough to indulge himself in having this with Nero, even if perhaps it was fated not to last; even if V wasn’t sure about what could happen when he recovered his original form; even if the possibility of his future self refusing to show them, when being Vergil again, was still there. 

However, that was a worry for a future that, though not very distant, it was still far away enough to ignore. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was Nero and him, right there, right then, and V wasn’t going to allow anything else to distract him from it...

 

“Uhm... do you think we should remind them we’re still here?”

 

Their current kiss was broken when suddenly _Griffon_ talked with a voice that, on his behalf, was trying to be discreet but that nevertheless gained him an annoyed glance from V and an embarrassed one from Nero.

“What the—why didn’t you leave?!”, Nero exclaimed, causing Griffon to let out an outraged squawk as Shadow simply looked at them alternatively with a rather happy expression.

“Hey, you don’t know how damn painful to watch it was to see you stupidly pining for each other! We deserved to see this through, you know?!”

“Pining?”, Nero repeated with confusion, causing V to rapidly snap his fingers in order to make his familiars vanish before Griffon could say other stupidity. 

However, the harm was done, since Nero was looking at him with a curious expression.

“Wait, does that mean that you’ve been after me for longer than me?”

V rolled his eyes at Nero, casually settling his hands on Nero’s shoulders before talking with a small smirk.

“Nero, maybe I should warn you that the fact that we are together does not mean I have to answer all your questions from now on.”

The boy snorted loudly, his hands sliding down to land on V’s hips, mimicking the invoker’s previous posture.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I had assumed you will still be a pain in the ass in that aspect”, he hesitated before talking again, “though you could actually answer back, you know?”

V frowned, initially not understanding what Nero meant until seeing the sulking expression appearing in the devil hunter’s face.

“ _Oh_ ”, V offered Nero a teasing grin while adopting a casual tone, “well, considering how awfully confident you were about my feelings for you, I didn’t think it was necessary for me to add anything else.”

Nero rolled his eyes while V made the most of that reaction to conceal a small gulp of nervousness, since his previous reply was simply intended to win some time.

“Sorry, I guess it’s my bad for expecting that a poetry lover was decent at confessions—”

“Nero.”

The boy shut up immediately when the teasing was completely gone from V’s voice and gaze. V hesitated, wondering how much he should tell. Part of him wanted to be sincere with Nero. Part of him wanted to reveal the truth about his existence; about the reason behind his urge for defeating Urizen; about his nature of being the half of a whole that would reemerge if they succeeded, and who, perhaps, wouldn’t accept those feelings as easily.

But eventually, V remembered he had decided to postpone such worries. He had decided that, for once, he wouldn’t live in the past or in the future, but in the present. Also, he was not going to lie to himself: now that Nero was _finally_ his, the last thing he wanted was to risk to lose him, and telling the boy that he was intimately related to the being who ripped off his arm was the best way to ruin everything. 

So, V exhaled a deep sigh, and while focusing on Nero’s eyes he slid down his hands through Nero’s front in order to settle them on the boy’s chest, without realizing he was adopting the same position than when they danced in the festival, when his love for Nero began to be impossible to ignore anymore.

“It is mutual”, he eventually said, deciding to simply listen to what his heart was telling him at that moment, without minding anything else, “the feelings you hold towards me, they are reciprocated. So, as flattering as it is that you offer yourself to fight against impossible dangers to get to me…”, V’s tone, which had turned ironic, transformed into a softer, fonder one, “...it won’t be necessary. Because if you really meant your proposal of keeping in touch when Urizen is defeated, I choose to stay. With you.”

After a couple of seconds of Nero simply looking at him in stupor, V began to grow impatient (and nervous), so he clicked his tongue softly.

“Should I explain what ‘reciprocate’ means or—?”

His sarcastic sentence was interrupted when Nero’s arms suddenly enclosed around his middle back, enveloping him in a tight hug.

“No, thanks. I perfectly know what it means.”

V smiled, because despite the brusque choice of words, deep relief could be heard in Nero’s voice. V liberated his arms from between their bodies in order to enclose his left around Nero as well, reaching up with his right to settle his hand on the back of Nero’s neck, his gloved fingers grasping softly the boy’s short hair without even noticing.

Hugs had never been his favorite display of affection, but V believed he could get used to how Nero’s arms felt around him. 

Though, of course, it would feel even better if a small detail was fixed.

“Nero.”

“Yeah?”

“Actually, there is something else you should know.”

When hearing his sudden serious tone, Nero stopped the hug to look at him with a hint of worry.

“What?”

V looked at Nero from head to toe, then towards the bathroom, and then to Nero again before talking with a completely serious tone.

“You stink. You should take a shower.”

Nero blinked, exhaled a relieved sigh, punched V in the shoulder with enough force to make V show a small grimace, and kissed him briefly but intensely again, all in that order and in less than five seconds.

“Fuck, don’t scare me sounding all serious like that!”

V began to chuckle when realizing that Nero had been honestly afraid for a moment. However, as he already knew, the boy was too soft sometimes, so by when Nero disappeared towards the bathroom announcing he planned to waste all the damn gel and shampoo, it was evident Nero was pushing back a rather wide smirk.

Speaking of soft, once the door of the bathroom was closed and V heard the water running, V exhaled a long sigh and snapped his fingers, invoking Shadow and Griffon again. 

“Jeez, you have some nerve, V!”, Griffon said the moment he appeared in front of him, “after all our hard work to put you two together, the least you could do would be—”

“Thank you.”

V knew he should keep in his memory the vision of Griffon freezing mid-air, after he said those two words with a smile that, for probably the first time, was completely genuine, and grateful. 

Shadow was the first one in reacting, approaching V to rub his head against his thighs. V patted the panther’s head softly before averting his eyes to Griffon, and when seeing that the bird was still opening and closing his beak without knowing what to say, he chuckled and adopted his usual arrogant tone as the smile slowly turned into a grin.

“What’s wrong, Griffon? Don’t tell me you have run out of something to say.”

Those words seemed to wake the bird up, who snorted before landing on the chair next to V.

“Nah, just wasn’t expecting you not being snarky for once”, Griffon’s gruff tone gained affability, “but you’re welcome, V. After so much time of suffering, you deserved to be happy.”

V gulped, exhaling an awkward chuckle when realizing that surely that sensation that been swelling in his chest for a while now was precisely that: happiness.

“It feels quite strange”, V looked at Griffon again, “perhaps I would be a fool by getting used to it.”

Griffon removed V’s moment of hesitation with a loud snort.

“Well, sorry for the bad news, but you have already fallen for _that_ kid. You can’t possibly fall lower in the fool department.”

V exhaled a chuckle, perfectly imagining the way Nero would try to shoot at Griffon if he heard that insult.

“I guess you have a point there.”

Griffon squawked a laugh, flapping his wings to pose on V’s arm when the invoker extended it horizontally.

“Of course I have”, he pecked at V’s head playfully, making this one offer him a glare that, for once, it was clearly half-hearted, “and now, I think you’d very much prefer that Shadow and I disappear for the rest of the night to give you both some...intimacy, amarite?”

V half-closed his eyes when Shadow, for once, played along with Griffon’s teasing words by making a heart shape with his tail. He was about to snap his fingers to make his annoying familiars disappear but they were faster, vanishing on their own between conspiratorial animalistic laughs that made V roll his eyes even if the smile never came to abandon his face.

* * *

Nero didn’t realize how much he had needed a warm shower until he felt the water cascading down on him, feeling like a balsam to his sore muscles. It had been years since Nero had been forced to run such a long distance against the clock. The last time he did such a thing was when he was in the Order, during one mission in which he and other Knights were forced to run for almost half-a-day in order to drive some demons away from the capital until reinforcements came. 

However, without a doubt, this last race had been way worse than that mission, since Nero had been unable to stop thinking that reaching Fokwall in time was his last chance to meet V until this one’s trail was lost in another city. And then, after reaching it and checking that the city was quite bigger than Mulwin, he had honestly feared not being able to find V. Fortunately, there weren’t _that_ many people around that fitted V’s description, so the visits to the different hotels had been quite quick. 

Still, he spent his good three hours hitting the streets until finding the correct one, and all the doubts he could have about being in the correct place vanished when seeing a couple of terrified guests practically throwing the keys of the room to the reception while mumbling something about a ‘magic panther with tentacles’. The receptionist had showed then a disgusted face while commenting a resigned ‘ _drugs are the worst_ ’ but by then Nero was already running towards the floor those guests came from.

Nero felt his heart skip a beat when remembering how damn nervous he had been while talking to V, initially not sure about how the invoker was going to react when seeing him again. But then, the face that V had showed when he confessed, so full of expectation even if the invoker had insisted on masking it with sarcasm until the very last second, was everything Nero needed to know to verify that V was standing in the same page than him.

Nero exhaled a long sigh, leaning his completely naked body against the shower wall with his eyes closed, feeling his lower half beginning to react because of the memory of V kissing him with a passion that didn’t suit the theoretically stoic invoker. He realized he had been a fool. After all, he had seen several times in battle that despite his initial calm appearance, V was full of a fire that, when ignited, could be impossible to tame, so the same could very much happen when they...

With a groan, Nero forced himself to push back that train of thought, snapping the cold water open when feeling himself about to get an erection. 

Damn, just a day had passed since he and Kyrie parted ways, and not even one hour since he and V got together, so probably expecting to go all out that night was going a little too fast and optimistic. Besides, he didn’t even know if that was what V wanted. It was already quite a miracle that the man made peace with his feelings, so perhaps sex was still out of V’s interest. Not to mention that probably the invoker had slept as little as him, so he would surely prefer to rest and Nero had to respect that.

With the resolve of holding back any urges, Nero abandoned the now cold shower to wrap a towel around his lower half, beginning to dry his hair with another one. His clothes needed urgent washing and cleaning so he left them then on the laundry bag that was inside the [ bathroom ](https://www.newsheridan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/newsheridanA005.jpg) to do so first time in the morning. When looking at himself in the mirror he felt that something was missing, and it took him a moment to realize it was the absence of Kyrie’s pendant. He was honestly glad that V had eventually stopped him from destroying it, so he took a mental note of bringing up the topic at some point. After all he had got used to wear that jewel around for almost 5 years and he felt kind of weird without it. 

At that moment, his stomach rumbled, and Nero realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since he arrived at Mulwin. Since it was past midnight already it was too late to order something, and much less to find a place opened, so he came back to the room with the hope that there was something edible around.

“V, please, tell me we have some food left because I’m starving—”

Nero, who had begun to talk while abandoning the bathroom, stopped talking when seeing V standing in the room next to the bed, in the process of loosening the laces of the corset-vest that came attached to his black coat.

The devil hunter felt his throat getting dry, and also certain part of his lower half twitching in interest because, unlike other times in which V had simply excused himself to undress in private just to reappear with a change of clothes, the invoker was now standing there feeling completely at ease, continuing removing the clothing as if it was the most normal thing to do.

“You are lucky. There is some left, indeed.”

While talking with a conversational tone, V grabbed the lapels of his completely unbuttoned coat to push the clothing back so that it slowly slid down his arms, remaining naked from waist up. The sexy casualness of the gesture made Nero feel hot, as his towel got even more constricting when V settled his long fingers on his trousers and began to unbuckle his belt, the metallic clicking provoked by the action sounding loud in the tension-clouded room.

“Also, once you have satiated your... _hunger_...”, the way that word played in V’s tongue together with the slow removal of the accessory from the belt loops made Nero gulp thickly, “...maybe you should talk to the innkeeper to book another room in order to get some proper rest. I believe there were still some available.”

When hearing that last suggestion Nero’s eyes came back to V’s face, thinking for a brief instant that V was talking seriously, but then he saw the way V’s green eyes were shining. He noticed the way his inked covered chest was going up and down in a more accelerated way, betraying his anticipation, and in that instant Nero’s previous resolve of taking things with calm flew out of the window.

In a couple of long steps he reached V in order to enclose his arms around the invoker’s thinner frame, desperately attacking V’s mouth once again. V sighed appreciatively during the kiss before returning it. The invoker’s hands enclosed around his back to dig his long fingers on the muscle, kneading the skin as if he had been craving to do that for a while, and Nero realized then he wasn’t the only one unable to hold back any longer. 

“I thought you were hungry”, V teased against his mouth, just before groaning again when Nero attached his mouth to the side of V’s neck to lap at the skin, provoking the invoker a shiver that he felt against his own body.

“Fuck, I am”, Nero snarled against the expanse of V’s neck before looking at him again, talking with barely contained need, “and no: I don’t want another fucking room.”

Nero didn’t waste time in tackling V against the bed, immediately looming over the invoker to resume their previous wild kissing. He suppressed a groan on his own when V’s nails dug momentarily on his back as he ravaged V’s neck again, after the current kiss finished. He was going to actually sink his teeth in the smooth skin, encouraged when feeling V shudder again, but then the invoker suddenly grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back, making him exhale a frustrated grunt that caused V to chuckle with amusement.

“As much appreciated as your enthusiasm is...”, V commented with a tone that didn’t sound as breathless as Nero would like, “...I need to ask: have you done this before?”

Nero felt the tip of his ears get hot because up till then he had been merely following his instincts without having an actual plan to follow. For the knowing smile adorning V’s face at the moment it was evident V was aware of such a fact, so Nero ‘glared’ at him before answering with a light sulking tone.

“You know I don’t, smartass.”

When V hummed to himself, looking extremely pleased for the answer, Nero was tempted to bite at the invoker again to make him groan again, partly to express his protest but mainly because hearing that noise coming from V was quite a turn on.

However, at that moment V pressed his long legs on either side of Nero’s waist and surprised him by turning their positions so that his back ended against the mattress with V being on top, the towel miraculously staying in place during the switching.

“In that case…”, V placed both of his hands against the mattress, on either side of Nero’s head, his arms extended to cage Nero there, “...I’m afraid you will have to follow.”

Nero snorted softly, recognizing those words from the festival, when V announced he would be leading the first dance. Nero was about to comment that, at that time, he had refused to follow any indications and hadn’t done it half-bad, but eventually decided that their current situation was quite different, and that probably letting V be in charge was surely the logical thing to do, given that the invoker had more experience than him. 

So, after ignoring the pang of jealousy that was about to strike him when remembering that piece of information, Nero exhaled a long resigned sigh and offered V a quick nod.

“Okay, fine, you call the shots.”

A grin slowly formed in V’s factions while leaning down in order to nudge his nose against the shell of Nero’s ear, making the devil hunter take an intake of breath.

“Relax, Nero. Since it’s your first time [ don’t worry: I’ll be gentle. ](https://youtu.be/2Eeb3u6k7k8?t=134)”

V purred the ending of the sentence in a predatory voice that made Nero doubt about the truth behind that last promise, but as V’s fingers began to travel down his exposed skin, provoking goosebumps wherever they teasingly brushed, Nero couldn’t feel more willing to take whatever V had in store for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY DID IT! THEY CONFESSED AND ARE FINALLY TOGETHER! Just took them 20 damn chapters for that to happen, I swear it's the worst slow burn I have ever written and even I wanted this moment to happen xDD
> 
> Also, I know I promised to increase the rating of the fic (for obvious reasons) in this chapter, but the reconciliation/confession just kept getting longer and longer and I had to stop it right here. I promise the wait will be worth it 🙏🙏🙏
> 
> Hope you have enjoyed these dorks finally getting together ^^ And that you look forward for what is coming <3 <3 :))


	22. (June 6) - You (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case someone hasn't realized, now this fic is rated **E** for obvious reasons ;))

**_June 6 - 0:07 a.m._ **

As V’s feelings for Nero grew stronger, every time that the devil hunter’s body was presented in front him V had forced himself not to stare too much, afraid that his gaze betrayed his inner, deepest desires of running his hands through that smooth, taut skin, desperate to feel how it would feel under his fingers.

Now, V didn’t to hold back anymore, so the moment Nero agreed on following his lead, the invoker didn’t hesitate in making reality all those things that had plagued his dreams in more than one and two occasions, but that up till then he had refused to think about.

With his lips still attached to a spot in Nero’s neck that seemed to be one of his weak areas, V’s hands roamed through the expanse of Nero’s front muscles. He did it softly at first, just to enjoy the shivers of anticipation it provoked in the younger man under him, but soon the need of fully feeling and marking Nero was too big to ignore, so V listened to it.

While holding Nero’s sides, V’s mouth travelled through Nero’s neck, following his collarbone with his tongue before his teeth marked the place above Nero’s heart. He did so by looking up at the devil hunter, wanting to see the expression the boy was making. Despite V was _still_ being gentle, Nero was staring at him with his blue eyes blown wide open, his breathing accelerated, and his hands already grabbing the sheets with force even if V had barely started.

V smirked with amusement. Definitely, there was no doubt that Nero had _no_ experience in sexual intercourse. The way the boy looked now, not knowing what was coming but being eagerly expectant about it, proved it. Of course, V was quite looking forward to see what a confident Nero could do, but there would be time for that later. Now, the knowledge that he was the first and only person to see the fearless devil hunter like that, being unexpectedly obedient while he dictated the pace to follow, was _so_ satisfying that, for once, V decided not to rush things.

He wanted to enjoy every single second of it.

“What’s wrong, Nero?”, V traced the recently marked skin with his tongue in a feathery way, making Nero shudder lightly, “are you perhaps nervous?”

His question made Nero snort, but the way the boy’s grip on the sheets loosened a little didn’t go unnoticed by V, who realized his teasing question had helped Nero relax.

“Nah. But you said I didn’t have to lower my guard, right?”

V rolled his eyes when hearing the comment, but the way Nero was smiling mockingly at him told V that the boy hadn’t even bothered to come up with a credible lie on purpose.

“Well, it’s nice to see you are finally listening to my advices”, V put his face at Nero’s level again, running his fingertips from the top of Nero’s chest down to his abs and navel, “better late than never, I suppose.”

Nero’s comeback was lost with a surprised gasp that V fell against his lips when he purposely grazed the boy’s nipples, but only by passing. He deeply kissed Nero again, repeating the action with his hands a couple of times to test Nero’s reaction. When feeling the boy’s breath hitch in his mouth every time that his fingers traced his chest area, V stopped the kiss and lowered his head again to circle his tongue around Nero’s nipple, dragging a broken gasp out of the boy.

 

“Shit”, Nero exhaled in surprise, not having expected V’s action neither the effect it provoked in his body.

The devil hunter muffled his next moan by pressing his lips together when V grazed the bud with his teeth, pulling at it briefly before beginning to stimulate the other one between his fingers. It had never occurred to Nero that playing with his chest would feel _that_ good. Being raised in Fortuna had seriously limited what he could learn about sex, and the books he had consulted out of curiosity and in secret in the Cathedral hadn’t been very useful, being scarily technical.

So, in summary, Nero was clearly at disadvantage in their current situation, given that V seemed to know _exactly_ what he was doing, unlike Nero who didn’t even know what to expect. However, Nero would make his best of taking note of everything that V was doing, in order to use it to his benefit the moment the chance arose.

Nero was drawn back to the present again when V suddenly bit his nipple, provoking a louder gasp out of him that this time he couldn’t muffle.

“If you’re worried to bother the other guests for being noisy, you don’t have to”, V continued talking while lowering down his body, V’s nose and moving lips featherily rubbing against his stomach and abs until stopping above his towel, “they left some time ago.”

“Cool”, Nero breathed distractedly, incorporating back in his forearms as his eyes focused on V’s hands _finally_ settling on his towel. However, instead of removing it, V simply stopped, making Nero look at the invoker with annoyance, finding him with a satisfied grin in his face.

“Have you even listened to what I’ve just said?”

Nero glared at the invoker, realizing that the man was clearly making fun of his eagerness.

“Yeah, something about some guests, but sorry if I give a shit about that right now.”

His grumpy reply only served to amuse V more, but before Nero could insult the invoker for being insufferable even in _that_ situation, his breath caught in his throat when, with his green-eyes burying into his face, V slowly removed his towel, finally exposing his member already half-curved against his flat stomach.

Nero hadn’t time to protest for V being still with his pants on. He actually hadn’t time to do anything that wasn’t groaning and letting his head fall lightly back when V’s fingers enclosed around his hot flesh to begin to pump it with a leisure rhythm.

“Oh, _damn_.”

Shit, he didn’t understand why something that he had done several times felt so much better when V was doing it, but there was no comparison.

 

V licked his lower lip when only a couple of strokes were necessary to obtain such an intense reaction from Nero. His own member was taking interest with every sound Nero was trying to muffle, even if it was a futile attempt because every time that V rubbed his thumb around the slit of the boy’s member, a low grunt escaped Nero while his hips bucked upwards in a spasmic way. It had been a good idea to leave his glove on. Surely the leather was making the masturbation even more intense for the devil hunter. V couldn’t wait to see Nero’s reaction with what was coming next.

When Nero had barely found the proper pace to buck against V’s hand, the invoker released his fully hard member. Nero exhaled an impatient groan, raising his head again to look at V.

“Shit, V, why did you sto—”, Nero’s eyes and mouth fell slack when V, still purposely looking at the devil hunter, placed her hands on his thighs and forced them more opened while situating between his legs, “wait wait wait, what are you gonna do?”

V blinked at Nero, raising an amused eyebrow.

“Seriously, what kind of sexual education were you given in Fortuna?”

“Uhm, none at all?”, Nero snapped, brusquely gesturing between V and his member, “and for the record, I can guess what you’re gonna do, smartass. But if you do _that_ , I’m gonna come.”

V tilted his head a little to the side.

“I’m aware, Nero. That is precisely my intention.”

Nero frowned confused.

“But then, how are we gonna—”, Nero’s face suddenly changed into a one of understanding, “oh. _Oh_ , so _you_ will be the one in—”

“‘Putting it in’ so to speak, yes”, V half-closed his eyes, looking at Nero inquisitively, “I thought I had made myself clear before when saying _I_ would lead.”

“Well, in my head you were leading in a... different way.”

V raised an eyebrow with curiosity when Nero ended the sentence way too abruptly, as if he was slightly embarrassed for the misunderstanding.

“How exactly?”

Nero blushing intensely gave V a pretty accurate idea about what the boy had expected from that night. He smirked slowly, leaning forward to place his hands on the mattress, caging Nero there to whisper the next sentence in his ear.

“Perhaps did you want me to ride you?”

He ended the sentence biting Nero’s earlobe softly, making the devil hunter moan softly before reaching up with his mechanical arm to settle it in the back of his head, kissing him heatedly next.

“Yeah, I did. And I do”, Nero admitted against V’s lips with such want that the invoker was momentarily tempted to make a last minute change in his plans, “but I said you’d call the shots, so if you think it’s better the other way around first, I trust you.”

Nero’s sincere words made V’s heart skip a beat. He kissed Nero again, slow and languid, guiding him forward to lean against the pillow again.

“Your guard didn’t last up for long, did it?”, V commented playfully after leaving Nero breathless, proceeding to lick down his sculpted body again and causing Nero to exhale a needy, eager ‘ _Yeah_ ’.

The devil hunter’s member, which had softened during their brief talk, was half-hard once again by when V finally reached it, and stiffened completely when with the only warning of V grabbing its base to keep it erect, the invoker rolled his tongue around the tip before softly beginning to take him in.

 

“ _F-Fuck_!”, Nero’s whole body shuddered violently for the foreign, warm wetness that assaulted him.

The pool of heat flooding in his lower stomach was the most intense Nero had ever felt while trying to achieve release, and even if his eyes wanted to shut close, Nero made sure to keep them opened in order to look at V as the invoker slowly swallowed him down.

Doing that was a mistake.

Nero hadn’t been ready to see how V looked at that moment: plump lips tightly wrapped around his member, dark locks of hair framing and falling on the man’s face, too intense green eyes fixed on his face. The devil hunter had to rapidly enclose his left hand around the base of his member as well to squeeze it hard not to come right then.

“ _Shit_.”

“Nero, if you simply curse I won’t know if I’m doing it good or not.”

The devil hunter opened his closed eyes to glare at V, ready to snap the invoker that this one perfectly knew how damn well he was doing it. The remark died on his throat when V’s fleshy mouth enclosed around his member again, replaced by a groan when the invoker resumed the up-and-down movement of his head.

God, he was screwed, Nero thought. Up till that day he hadn’t particularly paid attention to V when this one ate, but fuck, now there was no way that _this image_ didn’t come to his mind when V’s lips enclosed around certain pieces of food.

Somehow feeling that V wouldn’t appreciate him tightening his hand on his hair (and even less his mechanical one), Nero grabbed the sheets under them with force, his groans becoming more frequent when V’s tongue swirled around his member with every bob of his head with a clear expertise that made Nero feel the strings of jealousy entwining with the heat prowling in his stomach.

Not that he had much time to feel frustrated for it since unlike V, with whom it wasn’t his first rodeo in the oral sex department, Nero’s inexperience made him feel close to the edge way sooner than he would have liked.

 

“V… _ngh_...V, I’m gonna…”

Already feeling what Nero was gonna say, V’s first impulse was to release Nero’s member and help him finish with his hand. That was what Vergil _always_ did it in the past, even with the partners that the older son of Sparda had considered deserving of receiving such a treatment.

However, when seeing Nero’s thighs trembling under him and the boy’s heavy chest going up and down because of his stuttered breathing, V decided he wanted to feel the boy’s orgasm as much as possible. So, still grabbing Nero’s member with his gloved hand, he placed the other on Nero’s clenched abs to feel its trembling. The invoker focused his next ministrations on the glans, adding a continuous sucking motion to that sensitive area that caused Nero to let a fast string of low curses that, for sure, would have caused him to be expelled from the Order in case of still being in it.

Nero’s orgasm took the boy by surprise as much as V. The invoker had barely time to drag his eyes upwards and catch a glimpse of Nero’s expression strained in bliss before the boy collapsed back in the bed, boneless, as his release began to flood in V’s mouth. _That_ was a first for V, but despite the bitter flavor and sticky consistency, the invoker did not have major difficulties in swallowing it.

 

Nero fought the numbness that accompanied the best orgasm he had ever experienced and raised his face to look at V. He gulped when seeing V’s Adam’s apple bobbing as the invoker swallowed. He had always thought that V was a clean freak, so the sight of V licking his lower lip in order to remove the remaining drops of _his_ cum was something that would have _never_ crossed his mind it could happen. He guessed he still had a lot to learn about V, even in that ambit, and he was more than willing for it.

“Still with me, Nero?”

The devil hunter didn’t realize V had crawled over him until hearing V’s amused question from above, which made him exhale a short laugh before nodding.

“Yeah, but maybe doing this wasn’t a very good idea if you wanted me awake while you fuck me.”

V rolled his eyes with patience, surprising Nero by removing his right glove before reaching up to retrieve something from the bedside table.

“Well, I believe you will see the advantage of being in such a relaxed state really soon.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when seeing what V was sustaining in his hand.

“Wait, is that lube?”

His question made V look at him with a mocking smile while popping the small bottle open.

“So at least you know what this is. Impressive.”

“When the hell did you buy that?”, Nero asked with confusion, ignoring the previous jibe.

“I did not. I borrowed it from the neighbor room while you took a shower, since I doubt the previous guests dare to come back”, Nero stared at V in disbelief as this one continued talking in the same natural tone, “I would turn around if I were you.”

Nero decided to leave for another moment the assimilation of V stealing lube and complied, turning around on the bed so that his stomach was flat against the mattress.

 

“Like this?”, the boy asked over his shoulder, with a mumbling tone that told V the boy was close to doze off, though that wouldn’t be for long.

After pouring some liquid on his right fingers, V kneeled between Nero’s legs and parted them a little to have more room to work. Then, he placed his left hand on the mattress next to Nero’s hip, and after reclining over the boy’s relaxed body, he began to suck at Nero’s neck at the same time that his index and middle finger tentatively began to circle around the boy’s entrance.

The effect in Nero’s was immediate: his eyes snapped opened again and V felt the tight ring of muscle tightening against his fingertips, but his teeth and tongue in Nero’s skin were distracting enough to make the boy groan in arousal while clutching the mattress.

“Damn”, Nero exhaled, moving his head to the side to search for V’s mouth.

The invoker kissed him, waiting for Nero’s entrance to loosen again before beginning to press the first lubed digit in, until just the tip entered.

“It will not be pleasant at first. Bear that in mind”, V warned with a matter of fact tone, causing Nero to exhale a soft snort.

“Yeah, I had already figured it out”, Nero offered V a cocky smirk, “but I had my arm ripped off, remember? I doubt that having your fingers up my ass is gonna hurt more than that.”

Nero’s words were clearly intended to make either V chuckle or show an annoyed expression for the crudeness of his words, but V simply gulped as his eyes travelled to Nero’s mechanical arm, feeling a sudden wave of guilt for his part to blame in the incident.

“V?”, Nero asked with confusion, but the invoker didn’t let him finish, capturing his mouth in another kiss before muttering the next words.

“I’m sorry”, before Nero could ask more about the apology V began to fully introduce the first digit, causing Nero to exhale a gasp that for now it only sounded surprised, but V preferred to be sure, “does it hurt?”

“No”, Nero frowned lightly, getting used to the sensation before talking again with confidence, “go for another.”

V nodded, attaching his mouth to the side of Nero’s neck again, making this one’s eyes end half-lidded. The next time he pulled his index out, V also pushed his middle finger in, this time causing Nero to let out a small grunt of discomfort.

“Prop yourself up”, V commanded against Nero’s ear, and he was pleasantly surprised when Nero immediately obeyed and straightened a litte his position, leaning on his forearms. V reached around with his left hand to tease Nero’s nipple again, causing the next noise of discomfort turn into one of pleasure as V’s long fingers slipped inside the boy more easily.

The invoker hadn’t found necessary to tell Nero that preparation was also a first for him, since Vergil considered that such act required a level of care that _he_ had refused to display for anyone. V knew the basics of it though, and that the key not to hurt your partner was not to rush things. Also, even if it was his first time, it helped Nero didn’t hesitate in voicing what he wanted, indicating when V could try to reach deeper, or spread his fingers, or add the third finger, who slipped inside more easily thanks to Nero’s recent orgasm, that had loosened up his body in a natural way.

 

“Damn, I didn’t know that having sex took so much”, Nero said with impatience after some minutes, causing V to sigh with patience behind him.

“It usually doesn’t”, V muttered the next words in Nero’s ear with a teasing tone, “but since you are a virgin, it cannot be helped.”

Nero snorted softly, beginning to buck back against V’s spreading fingers to speed up the process.

“Yeah, I bet you’d have preferred me to have experience, huh?”

The movement of V’s fingers came to a stop, causing Nero to frown before feeling the invoker’s teeth sinking in the side of his neck, with enough force so that this time pain was also present.

“What the fuck, V—”

Nero’s pained protest developed in an aroused, stuttered ‘ _d-damn_ ’ when the invoker’s fingers began thrust inside him more roughly, while curling in a way that had Nero gasping because it suddenly felt way better and more intense.

“Don’t bring that woman up”, the unexpected dangerous edge in V’s velvety voice made Nero suffer a shiver down his spine, “you belong to me now.”

The last words were snarled in his ear with possessiveness before his mouth was captured in a forceful kiss. Nero groaned during it, returning it with matching brusqueness as he kept pushing back against V’s digits so that they kept abusing that spot that made the back of his hair stand.

Nero wasn’t still used to that kind of outbursts coming from V, which proved that there was more about the invoker than what this one was willing to show. But the fact that V, who since the beginning had always refused to be affected by anything or anyone, became so easily impassioned with him, made Nero feel his member hardening again under his stomach.

“V”, Nero breathed after the invoker released his lips, “come on, I’m prepared enough already.”

“I disagree”, V commented, his words contrasting with the way he withdrew his fingers from Nero, “but if you think you are, I’m not going to insist.”

Nero turned around to lean back against his forearms to look at V as this one stepped momentarily on the carpeted floor to remove his pants and underwear. The light strained tone V was using, his more accelerated breathing, and his completely erect tattooless member (the man hadn’t lied about that during the game) allowed Nero to read between lines, understanding that, the same as him, V was feeling too impatient to wait more.

While the invoker discarded his pants and underwear, Nero leaned back against the pillow while opening his flexed legs, clearly indicating how he wanted to do it while V knelt on the bed and reached for the lube to lubricate his member.

“It will be easier for you if you kneel and turn around.”

Nero huffed softly, answering V’s warning a challenging smirk.

“Your memory is failing you, V: I told you I’d never kneel for anyone, remember?”

V smirked back, situating between his legs while placing his hands on his knees, pushing them backwards. Nero took the hint, hooking his hands on the back of his own knees to press them towards his body. V grabbed his own member to angle it against Nero’s entrance, placed his other hand in Nero’s hip, and locked eyes with him while leaning forward, causing Nero’s breath to hitch when feeling the lubed tip of the invoker’s member nudge against his probably-not-enough stretched entrance.

“I do remember. You also said then that you had never begged for anything, and that you would never do. But tonight, Nero…”, V muttered the next sentence against his half-parted mouth in a promising, definitive tone that made Nero’s heart race even more, “...let’s see if you can refrain yourself.”

And then, V began push forward.

 

V swallowed Nero’s strained grunt in his mouth as he slowly sank into the boy.

Despite having managed to show a relative calm demeanor, his own heart was racing impossibly fast, because despite having Vergil’s memories of how sleeping with someone was and felt, his current body had never experienced any of it, so in a manner of speaking it was a first time for him as well. 

For that reason, as his member was slowly taken by Nero, the warm tightness invading him was almost overwhelming, to the point that V had to stop midway because he was honestly afraid of finishing the moment he was sheathed inside.

“Shit, it’s in already?”

Nero hissing those words against his mouth made V realize he had closed his eyes without realizing. He opened them again, finding Nero looking up at him with an expression that looked pained but also questioning, as if he didn’t understand why V wasn’t continuing.

“Almost”, V failed in sounding as composed as he would like.

“Then why did you stop? I can take it.”

V snorted softly.

“I don’t doubt it. I know how brute you are. But _I_ need a moment.”

Nero’s eyes opened more, as if he wasn’t believing that V had actually admitted such a thing. In fact, the invoker was regretting having done it so easily when Nero simply nodded.

“Sure. Take your time.”

V felt a wave of warmth spreading inside when not finding any trace of teasing in Nero’s words for his momentary lack of cool. He gulped subtly, leaned forward to kiss Nero again and continued this time without stopping until their bodies became one.

“Fuck”, Nero hissed out, releasing his left leg to enclose his hand around V’s back, digging his fingers there, “fuck, maybe you were right about the preparation stuff.”

V chuckled, placing his hands against the mattress and on either side of Nero’s body, now that there was no risk of him accidentally slipping outside the boy.

“I thought you could take it.”

“Hey, you are inside, aren’t you? So, I could.”

V exhaled a patient sigh, looking at Nero’s frowned face and too tense jaw.

“Do you want me to pull out?”, he offered.

Nero opened his eyes, surprised V with an intense kiss, and continued talking against his lips with a determined tone.

“Yeah, but then push in again. That’s how this works, you know? Damn, I thought you were the expert here.”

 

Nero smirked more widely when his comment made V roll his eyes softly, though his bravado lasted until his next groan of discomfort after V pulled back again, the invoker’s member burning his insides despite the slowness of the movement.

He wasn’t going to lie: sex was more painful that he thought it’d be, but V was keeping his promise of being gentle and Nero was grateful for it. Also, the pain wasn’t entirely bad, since it was accompanied by a strange feeling of fullness that Nero had never experienced before, but that made his body feel hot in a weird but nice way.

Finally, the image of V over him was quite a sight itself, and the reason why Nero felt his member harden again because damn, it was evident that V was enjoying being inside of him, with the way the invoker was fighting to keep his eyes opened and the way his mouth parted every time that he pushed inside.

Nero found himself thinking that, even if that first time didn’t end being pleasurable for him, seeing V looking that way had been worth it enough.

However, he didn’t need to be that sacrificed, since after half-a-dozen of thrusts V began to use his hands again. Nero groaned this time just in delight when V’s skilled, long fingers roamed through his body again: groping, pinching, pulling, making heat settle down again. Then V’s mouth joined the assault, the man’s tongue tracing the shell of his ear, then his neck, then his lips, and when V’s hips rediscovered _that_ angle that had provoked goosebumps in him before, pain was completely replaced by raw, escalating pleasure from then on.

“Oh shit”, Nero moaned, not caring anymore about other guests that could be hearing him, too busy while opening his legs more to push back every time that V bottomed out, “oh fuck...V... Yes, _V_.”

 

V bit his lower lip, his grasp securing again on Nero’s hips when the boy arched his toned body while beginning to recite his name, allowing him to finally build a proper rhythm that had the bed creaking under them.

He could not deny it: seeing the fierce, stubborn Nero willingly submitting to him like that, simply surrendering and giving him all the control even if he was physically stronger than him, was an arousing sight. A sight that forced V to close his eyes in order to focus on continuing thrusting back and forth, back and forth, or otherwise the vision of Nero squirming under him would make him reach completion embarrassingly fast.

At some point, Nero reached up with his metallic hand to grab the pillow, threatening to rip the material off. He began stroking himself with his other hand while rocking back so that V kept mercilessly hitting that spot.

“Damn... _ah_...damn, it’s so good… _V_!”

“Nero”, V groaned the boy’s name as an answer, all his attempts to keep his eyes closed going to waste in that instant, too thirsty of seeing the expression he was making Nero show.

V didn’t regret doing so, because the open expression of pleasure that bathed Nero’s face was something worthy to witness. Again, the knowledge that he was the first in making Nero look like that, in being the boy’s first, was so satisfying that he couldn’t help to groan before covering Nero’s mouth with his, the boy kissing back with enthusiasm.

Eventually, it seemed that Nero hadn’t minded that V had taken control. The obscene though absolutely erotic sounds Nero was making, urging him to keep going and vocalizing how good everything felt without any shame or decorum, showed that the boy was more than happy with their current situation, and so was V.

Realizing Nero was close again, V released one of the boy’s hips to remove the boy’s hands from his member, causing this one to exhale a frustrated whine when V pinned it next to his head.

“Not yet”, he ordered against Nero’s lips, kissing them next before tracing Nero’s strong jaw with his tongue, “not yet, Nero.”

His command made Nero curse before releasing the pillow to enclose his arm around V’s back. V hissed in both pain and arousal when feeling the cold metal digging in his back, but the violence of the grip spurred him on to sacrifice rhythm for shorter thrusts, aimed to reach his own relief and also to push Nero to his second orgasm.

“V…”, Nero groaned, and the begging component of his voice made V have to hold himself back not to finish at that moment, “...I... _ngh_...fuck, I need…I want...”

“What is it, Nero?”, V pressed raggedly, slowing his thrusts on purpose to make Nero exhale a keening sound, “what do you need?”

V was expecting that Nero protested at that moment, or that the boy demanded him to let him come already.

What V wasn’t expecting was Nero’s human fingers suddenly interlacing with his besides his head; or Nero’s mechanical hand reaching up to hook in the back of his hair; and neither Nero’s blue eyes searching for his green ones among the fog of want surrounding them, in order to exhale the next word with fierce intensity. 

“ _You_.”

V’s heart skipped a beat, as his rhythm also came to a momentary stop while staring down at Nero.

He hadn’t expected such an answer, his throat tightening for the reaffirming truth that a simple three-letters words could hold inside:

That Nero wanted him. That Nero needed him. That Nero loved him.

In the past, Vergil had had many skilled partners, but V hadn’t the slightest doubt that none of those previous encounters could compare to or beat the one he was currently sharing with Nero.

And, somehow, if fate ended separating them, he knew no future ones could compare either.

“You have me”, V managed to whisper against Nero’s mouth, forcibly pushing aside that last bitter thought by resuming their frantic kissing and thrusting movements again, causing the devil hunter to groan as his fingers tangled in V’s messier hair, as if wanting to keep him there, _close_ , “you have me, Nero.”

 

Nero came untouched, calling V’s name against the invoker’s lips, because it was impossible for him to hold back after hearing V confirm that, the same as he belonged to the invoker, it was the other way around as well, even if he was pretty sure of the face V would make in case of expressing it with those words.

Nero’s eyes threatened to close again as his release spilled between their stomachs, but he fought against that urge in order to watch the invoker as this one kept rocking inside his oversensitized body more and more erratically.

V reached his peak hissing his name between gritted teeth, his brows furrowed and his green eyes hazed with want but also love, that last thing being still so new to him that Nero found himself gulping thickly, feeling immensely glad that they had managed to sort things out.

At that moment Nero noticed V’s extended arms trembling lightly, his lean body spasming as the last powerful rattles of his orgasm traversed by him, so he was quick enough to reach up with his hands to grab V when this one slumped forward, totally spent.

Nero guided the invoker down towards his body so that the man was leaning completely on him. He then enclosed his arms around V’s back, feeling his racing heartbeat against his own and his labored breathing against the crook of his neck.

They remained like that for almost a minute, regaining their strength, until V broke the silence by whispering something with his eyes still closed, as if he was in a limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness.

“ _Break this heavy chain, /That does freeze my bones around_ /”, V murmured to himself as Nero looked at him with curiosity, listening in silence, “ _Selfish, vain, /Eternal bane, /That free love with bondage bound._ ”

Nero exhaled a resigned sigh, kissing V quickly and causing this one’s eyes open brusquely, after having been awaken from his momentary slumber.

“Me too”, V looked at him without understanding, so he continued, “you said some weird poetic stuff right now, but there was something about ‘love’, so, ‘me too’.”

V stared at him for a long second before exhaling a tired laugh, sliding towards the bed to be lying next to Nero with his hand placed on the boy’s sweated chest, in the place where his heart was.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the fact that the word ‘love’ appears in a poem does not necessarily mean something romantic or positive—”

Nero interrupted V with another kiss that effectively caused the invoker to shut up for the sake of returning it.

“And I hope you do not expect to win all our future arguments in this way”, V warned when the slow, languid kiss finished, but the reproach had a hint of playfulness in it that made Nero snort with a smile.

“Duly noted”, he said mockingly, shifting his body to his side to be facing V. He tried to hide a grimace of discomfort but V noticed it.

“Are you in pain?”, V inquired quite bluntly, so that he hadn’t the chance of avoiding the question.

“Yeah, it kind of hurt, but nothing I can’t stand”, Nero hesitated, something that he had managed to ignore up till that moment coming back to him, “and how are _you_ feeling?”

V blinked.

“Well, I’m not in pain, if that’s what you’re asking.”

The ironic answer was understandable, especially considering how literal V could be sometimes, but Nero sighed with impatience even if it was his fault for not being the straightforward one for once.

“I meant if you have liked it, you moron.”

V looked at Nero surprised before offering him an amused smirk.

“Well, given the fact that we both reached completion, I think it’s safe to assume it was pleasurable for the both of us.”

Nero rolled his eyes, guessing that it was too much to ask that V answered with a simple ‘yes’. He was about to leave it at that when his mouth decided to speak on his own.

“Better than with Zaira?”

Nero regretted his question the moment it escaped him, realizing that it was totally out of place, not to mention that it was evident that V had slept with more people besides that woman before, so asking about a particular one was utter bullshit.

However, instead of getting irritated or angry, V simply offered him a confused, still slightly sex-dazed expression as an answer.

“Who?”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened.

He didn’t know if he should laugh with relief of facepalm with exasperation, so he did both.

“Dr. Dorens?”, he tried, “From Pitchbale?”

After a couple of seconds, an expression of recognition passed by V’s factions and the man hummed, just before looking confused again.

“But what does she have to do with any of this?”

Nero stared at V in disbelief, initially thinking that V was mocking him. But when after a moment V looked at him clearly waiting for _him_ to continue, Nero realized the man was honestly not knowing what he was talking about.

“Wait…”, Nero began to say slowly, “...you mean you didn’t sleep with her?”

V clicked his tongue, now looking annoyed.

“No, I didn’t. And I encourage you to guess who was the culprit for it.”

“But I saw—”

Nero interrupted himself, but it was too late because V was already arching a questioning eyebrow.

“You _saw_?”, V’s previous annoyance was replaced by amusement, surely understanding everything, “I did not take you for a voyeur, Nero.”

“And I’m not, you idiot!”, he snapped, feeling his ears getting red as V’s smirk grew, “it’s not my fault that you decided to bring her to our room! I-I was just trying to return your stupid toy to you: how the hell should I know that you were trying to—”

This time it was V the one who interrupted Nero by initiating a kiss, and this time it was Nero the one who automatically followed, grunting softly while changing positions to be looming over V, his annoyance vanishing because, at the end, nothing had happened between V and that woman and apparently he was the reason for it, which was really satisfying.

He groaned during the open mouth kiss when V’s hands settled on his shoulder blades, groping the muscle before travelling down the expanse of his back, which encouraged Nero to rut down against the invoker, even if the probabilities of getting himself hard for a third time that night were non-existent.

It still felt pleasant though, and it seemed that V thought the same for how the man sighed appreciatively as they languidly rutted against each other. They did it for some seconds, as long as the kiss lasted, before finally separating.

“I thought you didn’t want to use this technique to finish an argument”, Nero commented then, causing V to offer him a condescending smile.

“Exactly. I don’t want _you_ to use it.”

Nero exhaled a resigned sigh, and he would have surely retorted something if at that moment he felt something liquid and sticky running down the back of his thighs, reminding him that they still had to clean themselves.

He may have been the one in losing his virginity that night, but among the two V looked clearly more exhausted, so it was Nero the one who made the visit to the bathroom to come back with some tissues and towels. Once the essential cleaning was carried out, V asked Nero to open the window so that the lingering smell of sweat and sex invading the room went away.

Even with the window opened, the night was still warm and a nice breeze blew inside, so they didn’t bother to dress themselves before entering the bed again, simply covering themselves with the covers.

 

“By the way…”, Nero began when V was finally feeling his eyes closing on his own, “...I haven’t asked you yet what happened with the manuscript. Did you manage to fix it?”

“I’m still on it”, V answered, hiding a yawn behind his hand before turning on his right side as Nero removed his mechanical arm to proceed to sleep, “I estimate that in another day I will be able to repair it.”

Nero muttered an impressed ‘ _Cool_ ’ behind him. V heard the boy changing position in the bed, then he felt Nero’s warm body behind him, and when an arm enclosed around his stomach he automatically tensed, a reflex act from when he was Vergil, since the older son of Sparda had never been fond of _any_ kind of excessive displays of affection during and, much less, after sex, so of course cuddling while sleeping had always been out of the question.

“Sorry”, Nero said immediately while beginning to push aside, noticing his reaction, “I’ll leave you some space—”

V’s answer was to rapidly grab Nero’s left wrist as the boy was already retiring his arm, in order to return it to his previous position. He interlaced his fingers with Nero, closed his eyes, and while feeling Nero’s surprised eyes on him, he muttered the next words with certain awkwardness, not knowing very well what was the protocol to follow in that situation.

“Goodnight, Nero.”

The invoker soon remembered that one of the reasons why he had lowered his guard so easily with Nero was his unique genuineness, so his tension vanished completely when the devil hunter got even closer to him, saying the next words against the back of his head with a smile playing in his happy tone.

“Goodnight, V.”

V smiled too, relaxing again, and for the first time in what it felt like a really long time, he was able to enjoy a whole, uninterrupted night of sleep in Nero’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...IT HAPPENED!!!! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (this chapter deserved that emoji xDDD).
> 
> It was the Christmas miracle :P Now jokes aside, it wasn't on purpose to publish this chapter exactly today (more tonight in my case xD), but I had time these days and inspiration struck (together with my desire of FINALLY making these two have some deserving, steamy time for themselves), so here you have it :))
> 
> Also, for the ones who were patient enough to reach this point of the fic and who may be craving some more Nero/V 'bonding time' don't worry: more of that coming in the following chapters ;))
> 
> I really hope you all have a really lovely night, no matter if you celebrate Christmas or not <3 <3 <3 See you in the next chapter and I really hope you have enjoyed this one ^^


	23. (June 7) - Spare hours (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!! ^^  
> Here it goes my first update of 2020: a chapter which is mainly smut xDDD

**_June 7 - 8:17 a.m._ **

“Seriously, V, how rough you went on the boy so that he hasn’t woken up _yet_?”

V sighed with patience when hearing Griffon’s impressed tone, but a small smile adorned his face while turning around from the table to observe Nero peacefully sleeping in the bed. The devil hunter was snoring softly while lying on his left side, facing V, his chest going up and down in an even breathing that showed the deep slumber he was in.

“I repeat you that his quick visit to Fortuna and his race to Fokwell are the main causes of his fatigue, Griffon: not me.”

“Yeah yeah, good excuse.”

V didn’t bother to fight more, partly because he knew Griffon wouldn’t stop teasing him even if he was right, and partly because the idea of having his ration of blame for Nero’s exhaustion was quite satisfying. 

A full day had passed since he and Nero first slept together, in both senses of the expression. V had woken up the previous morning with his body feeling so warm that for a moment he was afraid to have caught a fever, discovering soon that the culprit of his high body temperature was Nero, who apparently hadn’t released him during the entire night. 

Disentangling himself from the boy’s embrace had been quite a challenge, since Nero was holding him tightly as if not wanting to let him go. Eventually V managed to set himself free and abandon the bed. Nero hadn’t moved an inch from his spot during his struggle, so V decided that the best option was to let the devil hunter sleep and recover, since he was going to spend practically the entire day working on recovering the manuscript page and Nero couldn’t help much with that. It was better if the boy rested to gather back all his strength, which would surely be necessary for what it remained of their journey. 

Late in the afternoon, V finally managed to put all the pieces of the page back together, and although part of him wanted to let Nero know about his findings, the tedious process had been quite straining and he was suffering from a significant headache, so V decided that such a talk could wait for the next day. 

When V lied next to Nero, this one automatically adjusted his position to get closer to him even if the boy was still deep asleep, his body fitting against V’s so naturally that it seemed it had belonged there all along. The invoker fell asleep with a small smile in his lips, picturing the face _he_ would have made for allowing such a thought to sneak in his mind. 

The next morning V woke up early in order to leave everything ready, which included storing the remaining pieces of the manuscript in case they could be useful in a future. V checked on Nero again, won against the temptation of reviving the already fading maks in Nero’s exposed skin to allow the boy some last minutes of rest, and entered the bathroom to take a shower. 

The chances to enjoy from a private bathroom and warm water in what remained of the trip were quite low, so V made sure to make the most of it. He dried his body and hair, put his clean pants on, and was in the process of tying his corset-vest when he heard a loud yawn coming from the adjacent room.

When V returned to the bedroom Nero was finally awake, stretching on the bed in a way that made his muscles more noticeable. V experienced a wave of arousal when remembering that such a strong body had willingly submitted to him, a sight he had already decided to want to witness again.

At that moment Nero’s face finally turned towards him, with the characteristic confused expression of someone who had finally woken up after sleeping way too much. 

“Good morning”, V greeted as Nero sat up straight on the bed, making a small grimace that prompted the invoker to talk again, “how are you feeling?”

Nero’s answer was so fast that it almost overlapped with V’s question.

“Hungry.”

The boy’s stomach rumbled at that moment, so V considered that such an answer proved the boy had already recovered from their sexual encounter.

“Well, I guess that this time it is understandable”, V said while approaching the bed to sit on it, “it’s been one day and half after all.”

Since V was crouching to tie down his sandals he failed to see Nero’s expression, but the boy’s astonished tone made easy for him to imagine it.

“Wait, what day is it?”

“June 7.”

“What the fuck, I’ve spent the whole yesterday sleeping?!”

V was going to answer but at that moment Griffon and Shadow manifested in the room.

“Oh, yeah, like a big fat baby”, Griffon posed next to Nero to begin talking with a conspiratorial tone, “and V doesn’t wanna confess but come on, boy: in a scale from 1 to 10, how wild V was with you?”

V had barely time to glare at Griffon, since Nero rapidly grabbed the pillow and hit the squawking bird with it, while Shadow growled from his spot on the floor in a way that looked like a laugh.

“Sorry, chicken, but that’s between your owner and me”, V was about to crouch again to tie his other sandal when a completely naked Nero stepped on the carpet with his usual complete lack of concern, “did you already have breakfast?”

V forced his eyes to drag up until Nero’s face to answer.

“Not yet. But I was planning to call room service.”

“Cool. Can you order one extra for me?”

V blinked.

“Of course. As far as you pay for it.”

Nero snorted, finishing adjusting Overture to reach for the towel that the previous night was discarded onto the floor.

“What a generous boyfriend I have”, if V wasn’t shocked enough to hear Nero addressing him in such a way, the boy suddenly leaning down to deposit a quick, natural kiss on his mouth was a new surprise, “I’ll be hitting the shower then. ”

V’s surprised expression was still in his face when Nero stepped in the bathroom while leaving the door half-opened, and was only replaced by an annoyed one when hearing Griffon poorly suppressing a laugh from the bed’s headboard.

“What do you find so funny?”, he made the mistake of asking with a tone that perhaps came out lightly sulking.

“Noooothing”, Griffon said teasingly, “just that seeing the high-and-mighty invoker get all flushed for a smooch is quite priceless.”

“I’m _not_ flushed.”

“Hehehe, you are now.”

Sadly, V wasn’t as fast as Nero and he was still reaching for the pillow when Griffon vanished with a laugh, while Shadow shrugged a little apologetically before joining his companion.

With a sigh, V reached for the telephone in the room and called the reception in order to ask for three breakfasts, while thinking to himself that the level of impertinency of his familiars began to be worrisome, together with the fact that he did not feel half as bothered as he should about it. 

* * *

The breakfast had been barely served when Nero returned to the bedroom, this time dressing a bathrobe that, he guessed, they had been given the previous day while he was still sleeping. His eyes illuminated when seeing two [ trays ](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/04/ca/68/4b/breakfast-in-bed.jpg) waiting for him on the bed. V was already sitting at the table, on which a smaller [ tray ](https://previews.123rf.com/images/karepastock/karepastock1901/karepastock190101320/114525912-breakfast-in-bed-with-fruits-and-pastries-on-a-tray.jpg) had been placed with very little food on it, according to Nero’s standards.

“I took the liberty of ordering the grassiest available breakfast for you”, V said with an obliging tone that contrasted with the irony of his eyes, which caused Nero to chuckle while offering the invoker a mocking nod of gratitude.

“Very much appreciated”, Nero answered, sitting on the edge of the bed who was closest to V to begin attacking his food.

Whenever they ate together, V had never failed to point out that it was impossible for Nero to fully appreciate his meals if he devoured them ‘like that’, expressing those last two words with a reproaching tone. On his part, Nero used to counterattack saying that V didn’t even have proper meals to begin with, since they were so scarce that even a child would still be hungry after eating, and that consequently he couldn’t give lessons about proper eating at all.

The fact that they were together now didn’t change their way to interact with each other, so that morning wasn’t an exception and they still spent most part of the time criticizing their ways to face the ‘most important meal of the day’, as Nero used to say whenever V accused him of eating like a beast. Doing that was part of their routine after all, the same as it was when Nero reached to finish the croissant and half V had left untouched as the invoker sipped on his coffee.

“So”, Nero said once he left all his plates (and V’s) as clean as if they hadn’t had any food on them to begin with, pointing with his chin at the page V had carefully left on the remaining chair, “what did you find out?”

V left his cup on the table, and after cleaning his hands on a napkin he reached for the page. Nero rapidly pushed aside the memory of the invoker’s long fingers working him open two nights ago, and how it had felt feeling those digits thrusting inside him as a prelude of the pleasure it would follow when V was inside him. 

He hoped those thoughts hadn’t showed in his face while looking at V, who proceeded to speak.

“Well, long story short, I can predict quite accurately the day in which Urizen will fully resurrect.”

It took Nero a moment to assimilate the good news, since V had talked with his usual too serene tone.

“Really?”

As an answer, V turned the recovered and showed it to Nero. The devil hunter automatically focused on the two small drawings of upside-down trees in the center of the page. The first tree was smaller and less detailed than the second, which looked leafier, as if it had finishing blooming completely.

“As I already told you, my theory is that this tree is the one Urizen invoked—”

“But there are two trees. Does that mean that that bastard is going to invoke another one?”, Nero shut up when seeing V’s impatient look, “sorry. Continue.”

V signaled at that moment a particular spot situated over the the drawing, that Nero would have missed if the invoker hadn’t pointed it out.

“Do you recognize this symbol?”

Nero frowned, looking between the symbol at V with hesitation.

“A moon?”

“A half-moon to be precise”, V rectified, pointing then towards the round post situated next to the other tree, “and here we have the full moon. I don’t know if you are familiar with this, but in the past people used to measure time by basing on the frequency of a full moon appearing in the sky, since a lunar synodic period is—”

“—29 days and half”, Nero shrugged when seeing V’s impressed expression, “we used that system in Fortuna, but after the Savior’s incident we discovered that for the rest of the people months had different days. It was a pain in the ass to learn them.”

Nero got ready to answer V’s remark about Fortuna being, once again, so behind the rest of the world, but the invoker was too focused on the manuscript to mock him for it.

“So, by taking that time into consideration, what I have extracted from this page is that the tree Urizen has invoked has two main blooming stages, one in the middle of the month and the final one at the end of it. The first stage has already taken place, approximately 14 days and 18 hours after our first encounter with Urizen, which was the first day when those roots appeared in Red Grave.”

It took Nero a moment to make the calculations, and when he did his eyes opened wide.

“That would be around May 30. The day those demons attacked Pitchbale.”

V nodded.

“The relation between the demons’ attacks and the tree’s growth still remains unknown, but what we should take for certain is that the next blooming phase will happen, once again, 14 days and 18 hours counting from that first attack, what situates us in June 15. Of course, this time could fluctuate. Perhaps our intervention by fighting back those demons allowed us to win us some time but, to be sure, I would mark that day as our D-Day.”

Nero nodded slowly.

“Okay so, in summary, we have a week to destroy that jerk before he gets even stronger.”

“No, Nero”, V rectified with a serious tone, “we have one week before Urizen becomes unstoppable. Because according to this manuscript, once this tree is complete and has gathered enough power to flourish...”, V passed Nero a paper that the man had torn from his notebook, “...our fate, and humanity’s, will be sealed.”

Nero grabbed the paper full of annotations and proceeded to read V’s neat handwriting aloud, containing the translation of the message written under the drawings.

"‘ _Therefore wait for Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘For the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, To assemble kingdoms, To pour out on them My indignation, All My burning anger; For all the earth will be devoured By the fire of My zeal.’_ Zephaniah 3:8”, Nero hummed to himself, shrugged, and returned the paper to V, “okay, then we just need to beat the crap out of him before that happens. Easy peasy”

V rolled his eyes, though a small smirk was adorning his face.

“Well, I’m glad to see that the news does not discourage you to confront Urizen again.”

Nero snorted, his tone not losing any of his confidence when speaking.

“Hey, I may not have been in my best moment back then—”

“Definitely you weren’t.”

“—but I’ve improved a lot during the trip”, Nero continued, as if he hadn’t heard V’s remark, “ _we_ have improved a lot. So the next time I meet that tree guy, you can be sure I won’t be the one in eating dirt.”

V exhaled a long sigh, nodding softly.

“I really hope so, because I doubt we have another chance. However, before returning to Red Grave—”

“Let me guess: another stop?”, Nero interrupted V with a resigned tone that caused the invoker to show a small smirk.

“Yes, but I guarantee this will be the last one”,  Nero looked at V skeptically but his attention was diverted to the page again when V turned it around, “do you see this?”

Nero stared at the completely empty page before looking at the invoker without understanding.

“It’s in blank.”

“It seems that way, doesn’t it?”, V turned around the page again and signaled the bottom of it, “but if you pay attention, this sentence is incomplete, as if it continued on the other side. My belief is that the back of this page has been purposely hidden with some kind of black magic, in order to prevent us from uncover its meaning. Shadow confirmed my suspicions, since he reacted to it.”

V’s comment made Nero remember certain part of his journey that, this time, caused him to grit his teeth briefly.

“Well, we can always contact your succubus friend again so that she deciphers it for you.”

His sarcastic answer made V’s eyes shine playfully, the amused grin that appeared in his face showing the man had surely detected the jealousy in his tone.

“That option would be worth consideration, if it wasn’t because Catterville is quite far away and we don’t even know if that lady is still there. So, I think the best option is focusing on gathering the necessary materials to break the spell. I believe we will be able to get most part of them in our way back to Red Grave, though a particular one requires us to visit certain place which is two days from here by car.”

“And that certain place is…”

“...a swamp.”

Nero snorted, shaking his head.

“Must have figured it out: we got the island, forests and mountains covered already”, he looked at V hesitantly, “and we will be able to come back to Red Grave in time?”

“We must”, V replied, carefully folding the manuscript page in order to store it inside his notebook, “so, in the worst case scenario, you will simply have to drive non-stop until there.”

“Hey, what do you mean _I_ will drive?”, Nero pointed at V with his index finger, “if you managed to reach Fokwell by car, now we can switch for sure—”

Before he could finish talking, Griffon and Shadow suddenly manifested in the room, causing Nero to jump startled while V’s eyes opened more, as surprised as him for seeing the familiars there.

“Kid, please, listen to me: if you want to have a tiny chance to reach that swamp alive and in one piece you absolutely cannot let V take the wheel EVER AGAIN, you hear me?”

Griffon was talking so fast that Nero was having difficulties to follow him, and he was still processing what the bird was saying as Shadow nodded effusively with his head when V clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers to push his pets away.

“What the hell did they mean by that?”, Nero asked with a frown.

“Nothing.”

When V answered too fast and with an obvious annoyed tone, Nero smirked as an idea popped in his mind.

“V, do you maybe suck at driving?”

The invoker’s expression remained unchanged but all his body tensed, and the defensive tone V used when talking again convinced Nero his assumption had been correct.

“The fact that I need certain practice to control a vehicle doesn’t mean I cannot handle it.”

“Really?”, Nero stood up with the smirk still in place, “then you won’t mind showing me how you do it, right?”

Nero had to push back a laugh when V tensed even more.

“I certainly could, but I’m afraid that the car is currently under repair and until this afternoon we won’t be able to take it back.”

Nero would probably regret in a future not having made the most of that opportunity to tease V more for his lack of ability while driving, which had surely left the car in such a poor state that it needed an urgent repair. 

But, at that moment, he could only pay attention to a particular part of V’s sentence.

“This afternoon”, Nero repeated, looking at V in the eyes, “so we aren’t leaving to that swamp immediately?”

Nero was pretty sure his tone hadn’t changed one bit. He was convinced that he had sounded pretty casual, and that it hadn’t betrayed what had passed through his head at that precise moment.

However, when V’s expression passed from defensive to knowing and the invoker’s eyes glinted in an already familiar way, Nero realized that, somehow, V had completely read his thoughts.

“I’m afraid we are not. Which means we have some hours to spare”, Nero tried to uselessly hide a gulp, but his heart skipped a beat when V stood up from the chair as well and took a couple of steps towards him, remaining with his arms crossed while talking with a conversation tone, “I’m quite open to suggestion about how to use them though. We could perhaps have a rematch. There is a secluded spot in the outskirts of Fokwell that would be the perfect sparring point. Or perhaps I could explain you more thoroughly about how I plan to decipher the hidden message of the page. Or—”

As V talked, it was more and more obvious that the man was making fun of him, so Nero decided to be the one in putting an end to the distance that existed between them, forcibly grabbing V’s waist to press him against him in order to kiss him with abandon.

Nero felt V’s smirk against his lips, but when the invoker didn’t waste even one second in pulling the top of his bathrobe more opened to touch his skin, his annoyance vanished almost completely, realizing that V probably wanted to invest those hours (or at least part of them) in the same way than him.

He placed his hands on V’s vest, and was about to begin to open it when a memory slipped in his mind again.

“Hey, can I remove it or you will get pissed off again?”

V chuckled softly, spelling the next sentence in his ear in a provoking tone that made Nero’s member twitch.

“I dare you to find out.”

Nero accepted the dare head-on, grunting against the side of V’s neck as his hands fumbled with the laces of the corset. 

He was expecting that the invoker protested for his lack of carefulness, or that he would snap his hands away to undress himself, but to his surprise V let him do, reaching down to untie his bathrobe and liberate his member to begin stroking him with a leisure rhythm.

 

“ _Shit_.”

V smirked briefly when Nero heatedly cursed against his neck when his thumb began to tease the slit of Nero’s member with a circular movement, intended to make Nero crazy. At that moment the devil hunter finally finished opening his vest, with movements that became clumsier after V began to teasingly masturbate him.

The invoker released Nero’s member to roll back his shoulders, helping the boy remove his clothing. He had barely made Nero do the same with the bathrobe, leaving the boy completely naked in front of him, when Nero’s teeth sank on the other side of his neck.

A pleasant pool of heat settled in his stomach, which encouraged V to voice aloud a desire that, up till then, he as Vergil had never felt before, but that had been awakened since beginning to feel attracted to Nero.

“So…”, V forced Nero’s mouth out of his neck to formulate the next question against his lips, “...do you feel confident enough to take the lead, Nero? Or do you prefer to play safe and let me do all the work again?”

His words caused the desired effect, which was the boy’s eyes opening more for a moment before cursing and kissing him again, more violently than before. 

‘ _Good answer_ ’, V thought with amusement as Nero tackled him to the bed, beginning to tug at his pants to remove them without noticing he had a belt and he was still wearing shoes.

“Sandals”, V simply said against Nero’s lips when the devil hunter was about to kiss him again, and he suppressed a satisfied smirk when the boy didn’t even protest for his commanding tone, lowering down rapidly to begin removing his shoes.

In the meantime V unbuckled his belt, not feeling like reprimanding Nero for throwing his sandals with zero care on the floor. He did though when Nero almost ripped his pants off together with his underwear in his urgency to remove them. 

“Maybe this is a good moment to comment that I would like to wear my clothes again in one piece”, V reproached as Nero came back to be at his same level, but his heartbeat had accelerated for how desperate the devil hunter was for him, and his next reaction was simply to groan appreciatively when the boy began to grind their naked bodies together.

“With the outfit you’re wearing, no one will notice if it’s more broken than usual”, Nero teased, making V bit at his lower lip, though that action only served to excite Nero who grunted in the back of his throat before beginning to lick down his body.

Definitely Nero was a fast learner and not just in the fighting field, V thought while gasping, after Nero’s tongue licked around a nipple, causing a nice sensation travel down his spine.

“Is it bad?”, Nero asked, looking up at him questioningly.

The invoker looked at Nero with amusement.

“If it is, be certain I will tell you. So…”, V entangled his fingers the best he could in Nero’s short hair, “...don’t go easy on me.”

The boy took his command to the letter, proceeding to bite his nipple way less kindly. V gasped again, louder, and arched more against Nero’s mouth, encouraging him to keep that level of roughness since it was making him harden against Nero’s flat stomach.

 

Nero's hesitation receded when hearing the gasps that V was exhaling as he mouthed at his chest. He did it for a while, soon learning that V preferred bites over sucks before proceeding to follow V’s inked skin downwards. He kept his hands up on V’s chest though, continuing pinching V’s now erected nipples as his mouth made contact with the tip of V’s member. 

It was thinner than his but just as long, if not a little more, and although Nero’s first impulse was to try to take him immediately, he eventually looked up at V again, finding this one looking down at him while panting slightly. 

“How do I…?”

Nero hated that his tone came up a little hesitant, and the fact that for sure V had received blowjobs from way more skilled lovers provoked a feeling of frustration within him. He forced himself to push it away when V talked with a tone that was still too composed for Nero’s liking, since he wanted the invoker to sound needier, more desperate, for him and for no one else anymore.

“Cover your teeth with your lips”, V instructed, as Nero struggled to keep those feelings under control, “and unless you want to gag very little erotically, I would recommend not trying to taking it whole.”

Nero snorted, placing his mechanical hand on V’s hip for a better grip while taking V’s member with the other.

“Roger that”, he answered a little too brusquely, innerly hoping to be half-decent while diving down to introduce V’s member in his mouth. He was competitive by nature after all, so the idea of a past lover managing to pleasure V more didn’t sit well with him.

His fears were soon blown away thought, because he had barely licked around the tip of V’s member when V’s hands grasped the mattress, an intake of breath escaping him even if Nero had barely done anything yet.

Nero looked up, and when seeing V’s green eyes transfixed in him and his breath held, he finally realized that, at that moment, it didn’t matter how damn skilled he was with his mouth or not. 

 _That_ was something he would worry about improving in his future encounters with V, but at that moment, even if V wasn’t showing it as much as him, the invoker was probably feeling the same as him during their first time. For sure, V had been waiting for this to happen, for _him_ to be in that situation, so surely the mere thought of having him between his legs ready to suck him off was almost enough to make V come. It had been like that for Nero after all. 

So, Nero stopped beating himself about not being the most skilled partner V had ever had. He stopped overthinking. That wasn’t his style after all. And, after digging his blue eyes on V’s ones, he decided to go all for it despite the warning, swallowing the invoker from tip to base while pushing back his gag reflex. 

He didn’t regret having ignored V’s advice after this one exhaled a low groan while trembling under him, V’s long fingers digging more on his head while beginning to buck against his mouth, setting the rhythm he wanted Nero to use.

Nero felt his member spasming as V basically fucked his mouth, his green half-lidded eyes not breaking eye contact an any moment. Nero was about to reach down to release himself a little when V suddenly stopped moving, reaching for the lube in the bedside table.

“Don’t stop”, V said with a raspy voice, as Nero momentarily released his member for the sake of observing the man pop the bottle open, “keep sucking around the tip while I finger myself.”

Nero suffered a short circuit when hearing V using those words. He stared mesmerized at the invoker flexing his legs and opening them more while pouring the lube in his fingers, before remembering he had to be helping. 

“Have you done this before?”, Nero said between lick and suck around the tip of V’s leaking member, as V reached down to introduce his digits inside his own entrance, “being fucked, I mean.”

Nero kept his eyes up to watch V’s answer, which consisted of the invoker shaking his head once before making a light grimace after beginning to spread himself open by scissoring his fingers. 

“No, I have not”, V offered Nero a teasing smirk, “you could say I’m kind of a virgin myself.”

Nero felt his ears grow hot with the confession, his member pulsating briefly.

If V was trying to stir him up, he did it with flying colors. He was about to resume his blowjob, determined to push V towards an early orgasm, when his eyes were drawn again to V’s twitching entrance. 

An idea popped up in his mind at that moment, and Nero decided to follow it before having second thoughts about it.

 

V’s teasing expression turned into one of confusion when Nero grabbed his wrist and made him remove his fingers. For a moment V thought that Nero was going to finger him himself, something he wasn’t against it, but his breath caught in his throat when Nero’s hands suddenly hooked in the back of his flexed knees and pushed them towards his chest, until his hips abandoned the bed and his ass was raised in the air.

“Nero”, V’s voice had a hint of warning, but his heart was pounding against his chest when Nero’s mouth ignored his member to travel ever lower, “Nero, wait—”

V didn’t recognize the keening sound that was pulled out from his parted lips when feeling Nero’s tongue swirling around his entrance, causing V’s body to spasm as an unknown pleasure traversed through his body to land in his lower stomach.

“Holy shit”, Nero cursed, the boy’s lips moving against that sensitive ring of muscle making V clutch at the mattress next to his head as his mouth went agape, bracing for the next sensation, “shit, _V_.”

The invoker bit his trembling lower lip with force when Nero dove forward again to lap at his entrance, initially not wanting to let out too loud, embarrassing sounds. However, when Nero’s tongue began to prod inside his twitching walls, finally daring to explore inside to emulate a steady, thrusting motion, V was unable to control his moans any longer.

This was new, that stomach-wrecking pleasure that was traversing through him as Nero’s mouth ravaged his insides. Needless to say Vergil had never allowed anyone to do this to him. _He_ had never trusted anyone enough to lend such control over his body. But it was different now. V trusted Nero, probably more than he had ever trusted someone. So, at least in bed, he didn’t need to be always in control. He could stop thinking, and simply enjoy the pleasure Nero’s diligent mouth was giving him. 

V could let himself go, so that’s what he did.

“ _Ah_...Keep going”, V exhaled heatedly, grabbing his right knee to free Nero’s left hand, “use your fingers too.”

 

Nero had to make a superior effort to comply V’s petition instead of masturbating himself, which would be a terrible idea considering that he was enough worked up already. He leaned V against his lap while he quickly reached for the lube to lubricate his fingers, even if his eyes couldn’t stop looking at V under him. 

Shit, V was unfairly hot with his lean, tattooed body slightly arched, brows furrowed tightly, and plump parted lips letting out breathy exhales. 

Damn.

 _Damn_ , he wanted to fuck V so badly.

Maybe the contrast of V looking so wrecked when the man was usually so composed had affected him. Maybe it was the fact that he had never been truly in love before and this was what happened when you loved and wanted someone. Or maybe it was the invoker’s confession of not having allowed anyone but him to see him in such a vulnerable state. 

Nero didn’t know what the reason was, but he only knew that, at that moment, his desire of being inside of V was so big that the intensity of it actually scared him a little. 

But he couldn’t do it yet. He had to be patient, and gentle, as V had been the other day, so after keeping V’s hips and ass raised again, Nero pressed two lubed fingers inside while continuing fucking the invoker with his tongue. 

“Deeper”, V ordered under his breath, grabbing the sheets with more force with the hand that wasn’t keeping his leg against his body to impulse himself up to rock against his mouth, “go as deep as you can, Nero.”

Nero obeyed. He felt V’s legs trembling against his hand with the penetrating movement of his fingers and tongue, as they slid against the invoker’s walls which felt impossibly wet and warm. The idea of having his dick sandwiched between them was enough to make Nero groan in anticipation.

At some point his fingers rubbed against something that made V groan his name loudly, his head burying back on the mattress, messing even more his dark hair. Nero raised his face, eyes burying into V to stare at the invoker while repeating the motion. V groaned again, then cursed, and when his eyes clouded with want fixed on him, Nero lost his breath for a moment.

When seeing the invoker’s intention was to straighten his position, Nero automatically released the man’s legs so that V could sit again on the mattress, accepting his searing kiss before noticing something that made him break it.

“Wait, my mouth has been in your ass—”

 

V cut his warning off with an even deeper kiss, while blindly searching for the lube to rapidly stroke Nero’s member to full hardness.

“I remind you I have ingested monster fluids. I can guarantee they tasted worse than you right now.”

Nero would have surely snorted if he wasn’t busy bucking against his hand while losing himself in the next kiss. Their lips were still locked when V began to lean back, while gesturing so that Nero followed him and situated between his parted, flexed legs. They locked eyes as V aligned Nero’s member against his entrance. Nero placed his hands on either side of V’s head, and when seeing a hint of nervousness in the boy’s expression, V simply nodded, silently indicating Nero to begin to push.

His hands dug on Nero’s shoulders as the devil hunter entered him. V was pretty sure that he wasn’t as prepared as he should, but for someone who was so familiar to pain, Nero’s thick member spreading him open was a kind of hurting that he could perfectly handle, enjoy it even.

“Shit”, Nero exhaled once he was completely buried inside him, his jaw clenched while looking down at V, clearing needing to put himself together, “you okay?”

A little strained chuckle escaped V, who looked up at Nero teasingly.

“I am”, to prove his point, he began to move his hips against Nero, making this one curse again, “I told you not to go easy on me, so move.”

Nero took a deep breath and nodded shakily, beginning to pull out. They both exhaled respective groans, and V saw Nero’s hands turning into fists on the mattress while beginning to move slowly. _Too_ slowly for V’s liking.

“Oh damn”, Nero panted over him,  “oh _damn_.”

V grinned a little, recognizing in Nero the symptoms of someone who was barely holding back. So, he decided to give Nero a little push by sliding his hands down Nero’s chest, making the most of the boy’s closed eyes to begin teasing his nipples.

“ _V_ ”, Nero warning tone was lost in a gasp when the invoker’s fingers began to pinch his nipples, making his tense arms tremble on either side of V's head, “... _damn it._ ”

Like that, Nero’s last strings of self-control vanished.

With a growl, Nero grabbed V’s wrists to pin them over the invoker’s head and against the mattress, his own arms pressed against them. The boy dove down to kiss V fiercely, open mouth and messy, his movements gaining speed and strength to _finally_ start pounding inside him without any restrain anymore.

“ _Yes_ ”, V hissed, bucking down to meet Nero’s onslaughts, “like _that_.”

V absolutely loved it, that drastic change of pace from slow and careful to fast and brutal. His whole body shuddered with each powerful thrust that dragged his body up and down as if he weighed nothing at all. The room turned too hot too fast, the smell of sweat and sex invading it completely, the sounds of the bed springs and the noises that kept escaping their mouths creating a strange harmony. 

At any other moment V would have probably felt disgusted by the musky scent surrounding them, or embarrassed of those occasional sounds, closer to whines that to moans, that fell from his abused lips every time that Nero buried himself to the hilt. But, right then, V could simply focus on Nero's body pressing against his in an almost suffocating but welcome way; on his member rubbing against the boy’s rippling abs, tense for the effort not to come too soon; on Nero’s thickness pulsing inside him, desperate to fill him to the brim; on that letter that now composed his being spelled in such a strained, aroused way by Nero, over and over and _over_ again, making him feel needed. Wanted. _Loved_.

 

“V…”, Nero growled when V wrapped his legs around his waist and tightened around him, the invoker’s heels digging on his ass to urge him to fuck him deeper, “god, _V_ …!”

With his member feeling painfully tight inside V’s virgin walls, Nero released the man’s wrists to settle both of his hands on either side of V’s head again, arms straightened to rock into him more easily. The next slams began to finally hit that place that made V exhale a broken gasp, causing the invoker’s body to arch after the rush of intense pleasure that violently flooded through him.

“Yes... _ngh_ ...Nero, _more_ ”, V groaned, apparently unable to contain himself any longer. The invoker’s arms passed to enclose around his back, nails digging on it and raking down the taut muscle with enough force to mark it, which spurred Nero to piston his hips rougher. He focused on not losing that angle that made V’s body spasm in delight, and he found himself groaning in return with each one of V’s broken moans. 

Fuck, he wouldn’t be able to last at that rate. He had pictured more times than he’d ever admit how having sex would be, and if someone had told him some weeks ago that he was going to lose his virginity with that enerving invoker, he would have laughed in their faces. But there he was, struggling not to come because everything felt too good, too _right_ , and damn if V exhaling his name in that almost begging voice while looking utterly wrecked wasn’t the hottest thing he had ever seen. 

He dove down to nip at V’s tempting, plump lips before fully kissing him again, making the invoker groan while one of his hands travelled up to hook at the back of his neck, encouraging him to deepen the kiss.

“Gonna come”, Nero warned in the brief space between desperate kisses, whimpering when V sank his teeth in his neck, making his member throb again, “oh fuck, V, I can’t, I’m gonna come.”

“Do it”, V urged, reaching down to also finish on his own while stopping Nero from pulling out by following the movement with his hips, “inside, Nero.”

Nero was surprised to find out that, as much as he hated to be ordered around, V’s ragged, velvety voice sounding so commanding in bed kind of caused the opposite effect, making him curse and lock his lips with V’s half-parted ones while thrusting erratically, rhythm forgotten for the sake of finally achieving release with a last stuttered grunt.

 

V felt Nero violently spasm over him as the last stertors of his orgasm ran through him, emptying completely inside. V suppressed a hiss of discomfort when feeling Nero’s hot release filling him, the unfamiliar sensation not entirely pleasant. However, he soon forgot about it when seeing how Nero looked at the moment: his eyes shut closed, brows furrowed and jaw tense, the visual representation of ‘ecstasy’ written in his young features. The sight caused V to reach his peak between their pressed stomachs, biting his lip not to let a moan that could remove _that_ expression from Nero’s face.

At that moment he noticed some drops of sweat rolling down the boy’s neck and in an impulse he raised his head to lick the salty skin. Nero gasped softly at the unexpected wet contact. His eyes fluttered open again, digging on V’s half-lidded ones when the invoker leaned against the pillow again.

For a moment none of them did anything but looking at each other while recovering their breaths, too exhausted to talk or move. 

Eventually Nero lowered his head to initiate a slow kiss. V's eyes fell closed once again as his arms hooked again around the boy’s sculpted back, moaning softly from overstimulation as Nero’s hips continued moving against him in a languid cadency by instinct, while continuing making out without any hurry.

“You okay?”, Nero whispered against his lips with certain concern when they separated after some moments, the thin string of saliva that kept connecting their mouths breaking when Nero exhaled an embarrassed laugh, “I think I got a little carried away.”

V exhaled an exhausted chuckle, hands distractedly sliding up and down Nero’s muscles in a lingering movement.

“Indeed you did", V offered him a teasing grin, "but do not worry: it was acceptable considering it is your first time ‘in charge’."

For the slightly offended expression that appeared in his face, it seemed that Nero’s first reaction had been to protest heatedly. At that moment though a teasing gleam appeared in his eyes, letting V know the boy had found out a better answer.

“Yeah, since I made you _beg_ for more, I bet it was more than acceptable.”

V got even paler for a moment, but he recovered enough to counter Nero’s cocky comment with a condescending smile that still looked a little sex-dazed.

“It was not a plea, Nero: it was an _order_.”

Nero laughed at that when hearing his argument, and V managed to keep his cool out of strong will, since Nero’s laugh was pretty contagious.

“Whatever. You wanna bath?”

The boy took V’s hum as an agreement, because he carefully slid up from him. V couldn’t hold back a small grimace when feeling Nero’s release spilling from him, rolling his eyes when seeing Nero staring at it with excessive interest.

“Yes, you did that.”

His ironic comment made Nero snort softly before finally abandoning the bed towards the bathroom. When V heard the water running he tried to stand up but his knees failed him at the last moment, making Nero, who had just returned to the bedroom, approach him rapidly to help him stand.

“Here. I got you.”

V couldn’t prevent a shocked gasp from escaping him when Nero suddenly grabbed him bridal style, beginning to walk immediately towards the bathroom while forcing him to hook his arms around the boy’s neck not to fall.

“Wow, you are heavier than you look.”

“Nero, release me _at once_.”

“You sure you wanna me to do that?”

“I’m serious: this is ridiculous and— _be careful with the door frame_!”

“Ups, sorry!”

V glared at Nero for his insincere apology, since the boy was poorly suppressing his laughs. Inside the [ bathroom](https://www.newsheridan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/newsheridanA005.jpg), Nero finally placed him on the tiled floor in order to turn the water off, when it was about to overflow. 

“Do you need help to enter?”, the boy asked, this time seriously, surely knowing how little V liked to be seen as weak. In fact the invoker was about to shake his head, but when he felt his legs wobbling he accepted Nero’s help.

The devil hunter didn’t release him until he was sitting on the bathtub. V was about to lean against the surface when Nero entered in the small space between him and the bathtub, in order to sit behind him, legs flexed and extended on either side of his body.

“Good?”, Nero questioned when noticing V’s surprise, since the invoker had been expecting that the devil hunter sat down facing him.

V nodded, reclining back against Nero’s front while leaning his elbows on Nero’s knees. The boy left his mechanical arm hanging outside the tub and leaned his other elbow on the border of the bathtub, in order to lean his temple on it.

They didn’t say anything for some minutes, and V didn’t realize he was so comfortable that he had closed his eyes until Nero talked with a really satisfied tone.

“By the way, you were right about the scratches.”

V frowned and turned his head towards Nero, not understanding the comment until seeing the proud smirk adorning the boy’s face. He rolled his eyes for the unnecessary excess of cockiness, but he lost the battle against the small smile that appeared in his face before closing his eyes again.

“Well, if your back begins to hurt too much we can always ask for a medical kit in the reception.”

 

Nero snorted without losing his smile, leaning his head back against the tiles.

“Nah, I think I’ll survive”, he answered in the same ironic tone, talking again after a small pause, “hey...can I ask you something?”

V opened the eye closest to Nero to look at him.

“Yes, you certainly can”, ‘ _but that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer_ ’, Nero completed in his head without V having to say it aloud.

“You…”, Nero stopped and tried again, “...have you ever been with someone?”

V blinked surprised, as if the man had been expecting a more compromising question.

“You mean in a serious relationship?”

“Yeah. Like the one I had with…”, Nero wasn’t easily scared, but when seeing V’s glare he raised his right hand defensively while rapidly changing what he was going to say, “...yeah, in a serious one.”

By some kind of miracle, V seemed to forgive him for having been about to mention Kyrie again, answering with a shake of his head. 

“No. For me, the inconvenients of getting involved with someone in an emotional level clearly surpassed the benefits”, V averted his eyes to the side, “it was something fated to end badly. Something stupid. Dangerous.”

Nero nodded, tilting his head a little to look at V with curiosity.

“And have you changed your mind?”

V remained silent for a moment, thinking deeply about his answer.

“No. I haven’t.”

Even if Nero wasn’t particularly surprised with the answer, part of him had waited for a different one.

He was pretty sure that disappointment showed in his expression, since he really sucked at hiding how he felt. However, at that moment V looked at him again while talking with a serious tone that sounded almost solemn.

“However, I have learned the hard way that when you get attached to someone, there is no point in struggling against it. Love is probably the only adversary humans cannot win against, no matter how hard they try”, V smiled at Nero self-mockingly as this one held his breath without noticing, “it’s a fight you made me lose. The only battle that I’m grateful for not having emerged victorious.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief when hearing his words, his heart beating faster. He released the air then, gulped thickly, and then leaned forward to kiss V with intensity. 

“I was wrong”, Nero snarled against the invoker’s lips, “you don’t suck that much at confessions.”

He swallowed V’s amused chuckle with a fierce kiss, causing the invoker to sigh during it while reaching back to settle his hand in the nape of his neck. At that moment V changed position to have a better angle to kiss him, rubbing against Nero’s crotch as a result and causing his breath to hitch.

Nero’s member, half-erected since V leaned against him, stiffened again with that movement. The kiss broke at that moment when V looked down, a sly smirk forming in his face while looking at Nero again.

The devil hunter blushed lightly and was about to apologize when V rubbed against him again.

Nero’s mouth half-parted in a moan, his hands passing to land on V’s hips before cursing against the invoker’s ear as this one kept rubbing against him, getting him more worked up. 

“God, I wanna fuck you again, V”, Nero huskily said, before his tone acquired a begging component, “can I? Please?”

V chuckled breathily, nuding his nose against Nero’s cheek.

“Since when you are so polite, Nero?”, he teased, grasping his cheek with his teeth before purring the next sentence against his ear, “if you want something, just take it.” 

Nero didn’t have to be told twice.

* * *

When Nero collapsed against his back on the bed, both completely spent, breathing laboredly and with the need of a _proper_ bath, V had a serious memory lapse about how they had made it from the bathtub to the bed. He assumed Nero had carried him there before having a second, memorable round of rather rough sex, that had brought V to a dry orgasm that was still lingering in his body.

“Hey, V”, Nero exhaled against his shoulder, causing a tickling sensation on his warmed up skin, “a dick can break for using it too much?”

Due to the post-orgasmic daze surrounding them both, V found himself laughing openly against the messed sheets when detecting real concern behind Nero’s words.

“I’m serious”, Nero protested, though the boy sounded about to chuckle at any moment, “Shit, it’s burning right now.”

After calming himself, V turned his body a little to the side to throw an ironic glance up at Nero.

“I do not think you should worry, Nero. Considering your lack of control today, I would dare to say that it is something rather normal to experience.”

“Hey, what do you mean with ‘lack of control’? Don’t talk as if I was the only one who wanted it!”

“Well, I do not recall having initiated this second round.”

“What the— it was _you_ the one who grinded against me!”

“That was an accident.”

“And accident my ass: you did it on purpose so it’s _your_ fault.”

V rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed when Nero let out a childish, triumphant ‘ _Hah!_ ’ before lowering down to kiss him in order to suppress his protests. The truth was that V had simply tried to change the position in the tub, accidentally rubbing Nero’s crotch in the process. However, when hearing Nero’s intake of breath, he couldn’t deny he had tentatively repeated the motion with certain expectations in mind, which had been completely fulfilled. 

It had been surprisingly arousing how Nero had manhandled him to press him against the bed facing down, in order to thoroughly work him open with his tongue once again. V had been about to tear the sheets off with his fingers until he couldn’t take it any longer and heatedly _ordered_ Nero to proceed.

V was pretty sure that he would have bruises on his hips the next day for the way Nero’s fingers had tightly gripped him while powerfully fucking him from behind, though probably he was partly to blame for it since he had the now blurry memory of him brokenly encouraging Nero to keep that rhythm, thing that the boy did more than satisfactorily while adding new patterns with his tongue and teeth to his already ink marked back.

“God, now I’m starving again”, Nero commented after finally releasing V’s lips, “do you think they’re still serving breakfast?”

V thought Nero was joking, and when realizing he wasn’t he exhaled an incredulous chuckle.

“I think they are, but the room service finished at 9 a.m. ”

“Okay. Then I’ll go to grab something myself.”

Nero quickly kissed him again and abandoned the bed, making it bounce lightly under his weight. V tried to straighten his position but, this time, he discovered he hadn’t _any_ forces left.

“You okay?”, Nero asked as V adopted his best casual tone.

“Yes”, V answered promptly, fortunately gathering enough energy to turn around and lie on the bed facing up, “but if you do not mind, I will take a moment before joining you.”

Despite the fact that V stubbornly insisted Nero could go, the boy took care of cleaning V and cover him with the sheets before dressing up in order to go for their second breakfast.

“You mean third?”, he sarcastically corrected, but the door was already closing behind a smiling Nero.

V clicked his tongue, crossing his arms over the sheets even if annoyance wasn’t the feeling prevailing inside him but one which was quite warmer. 

His eyes were closing on his own, exhaustion reaching him after so many tiring though enjoyable exercise, when suddenly Griffon appeared in front of him. V was about to demand the bird an explanation about his presence there when the crow squawked in surprise

“O-Oh, sorry: we felt that you were feeling weak and thought that something was wrong”, Griffon laughed then mischievously, “I’ll tell the guys that it was simply you having waaaay less stamina than in your good years.”

If V wasn’t in fact so weak, he was pretty sure that the bottle of lube would have impacted against his familiar instead of doing it against the wall, but the bird avoided it easily with a mocking lateral cartwheel in the air.

“ _Griffon_ …”, V said in a warning tone, causing the bird to chuckle before adopting a more conciliatory tone.

“Okay, okay, I’ll leave. But if I were you I would put the ‘ _Do no disturb sign_ ’ in the door, you know? Just in case.”

V pinched the bridge of his nose with patience as his familiar disappeared between laughs. He was about to get up to do as the bird had suggested though, and when realizing that the probabilities of his legs not sustaining him were too high, he exhaled a resigned sigh and snapped his fingers, making Shadow appear.

“Not a word to Griffon.”

The panther nodded obediently when hearing his threat. Then he used his tentacles to open slightly the door, changed the sign, and vanished with a soft growl. 

V sighed again, and he was thinking to himself that after recovering his original form he planned to make Griffon pay for all that impertinent teasing when the door opened again and Nero entered hurriedly.

“I forgot my wallet”, Nero had barely grabbed it and was about to leave again when he stopped, looking at V with confusion, “uhm...V, why are you smiling so creepily?”

The invoker shook his head without removing the mischievous smile from his face.

“I was just thinking about a future revenge. That's all.”

Nero stared at V, blinked, and seemed to decide he was too hungry to understand him because simply shrugged before abandoning the room, leaving him alone with his fantasies of retaliation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter can be summarized as 'porn with a little of plot', buut I'm not sorry about it: after all the time it took them to be together they deserved some purely smutty chapters hehehe.
> 
> Next one will have more plot (though it's not impossible that more wild smut appears, just saying) <3 <3


	24. (June 8) - Night talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than the ones I usually write, but it has taken me more to update since first, work has been a little busy lately, and second, I had to plan the rest of the chapters :)

**_June 8 - 6:42 p.m._ **

“And are you sure we are _really_ going in the right direction?”

“Yes.”

“And that we aren’t making a gigantic detour?”

“If with ‘gigantic detour’ you mean ‘to be purposely avoiding the more flooded areas so that the car does not end stuck here without solution’ then yes, Nero: we are certainly taking a detour.”

“Okay, okay, _fine_ , but I would swear that I have seen that tree before.”

“In that case perhaps your ability of distinguishing nature is not as outstanding as you think.”

“You know, V, you can use sarcasm all you want, but we both know that finding that sanctuary would be easier if you hadn’t broken the damn GPS.”

“I did _not_ break it. It simply stopped working.”

“Yeah, after _you_ tried to program it and turned it totally useless.”

“You were not there, so such an accusation has no solid foundation.”

“Sorry, but yesterday your chicken betrayed you and told me everything while you took a nap.”

“So you believe my familiar over me?”

“Knowing how much you _hate_ to admit being wrong? _Hah_! Of course I do.”

“Aww, thanks for the vote of confidence, kid! For once I will forgive you for calling me ‘chicken’”

Nero noticed V shifting in his seat, probably to glare at Griffon sitting in the back seats. He was already expecting to hear one of V’s condescending (lately emptier and emptier) threats when suddenly the bird burst out laughing, after Shadow growled something that he obviously couldn’t understand.

“What did he say?”, V inquired with suspicion, frowning with impatience when it took Griffon some seconds to calm down to speak.

“He says you really look like a married couple.”

V’s mouth fell a little opened in stupor as Griffon and Shadow laughed again, being Nero the one who intervened after snorting.

“Hey, we already argued like this before being together.”

The silence that fell next was an answer on its own, but Griffon talked nevertheless.

“Oh, believe me, we know, kid. The suppressed sexual tension in those moments was so thick that threatened to kill both Shadow and me—”

Nero would have liked to refute Griffon’s statement but V was faster by snapping his fingers to make the familiars go. Both animals were chuckling when it happened, so it was evident they had foreseen what V was going to do, which caused the invoker to click his tongue with annoyance.

After a small pause, Nero talked again with curiosity.

“Was there?”, V looked at him with an expression that indicated he didn’t understand what he meant, and that evidently Nero was at fault for it, “sexual tension I mean. Between us.”

V remained silent for a moment before his eyes focused on the map leaning against the glove compartment.

“Well, it is evident they are exaggerating because, at least for my part, I could not stand you at first.”

The invoker’s honesty caused Nero to bark a laugh.

“Yep, that makes two of us. Damn, you were so fucking annoying. I mean, you _still_ are, but back then it was _even_ worse.”

He exhaled an ‘ouch’ when, without averting his eyes from the map, V reached for the cane leaning between their seats to distractedly hit him on the top of his head with enviable accuracy. Nero would have liked to return the hit in some way but he couldn’t allow himself to release the wheel, since as the hours passed it was more and more difficult to force their way through that apparently endless [swamp forest](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/07/26/22/28/swamp-3564762_960_720.jpg). Not to mention that he had to pay attention to the noises the car was making in order to detect when he could keep forcing the vehicle to advance, or when there was a real risk to end stuck in the mud. At least he was glad to have paid (half) attention to Nico’s lessons about mechanics. Now they were coming in handy.

Speaking of whom, considering how friends the craftswoman and Kyrie had become during the past year, he wondered if Nico already knew about their separation. A shiver traveled down Nero’s spine when thinking about what Nico would do to him when learning about that. He had to remember to bring weapons when that conversation took place, although he doubted to emerge victorious from it even if he was fully armed.

When another forty-five minutes had passed, they finally reached a point in which it was impossible to advance with the vehicle if they wanted to use it in their way back, thing that was really necessary considering they didn’t have too much time to waste.

The sun was still up, and Nero estimated that they still had an hour and half until dusk. However, when Nero suggested to step down to continue on foot. V advised against it. After all, even if they had an approximate idea about where the abandoned sanctuary could be, it was impossible to estimate with accuracy the exact place and how much it would take them to reach it.

In addition, the probabilities of demons appearing at night to ambush them was higher, so in case of continuing the most probable outcome was that they spent most part of the time fighting against demonic creatures, rather than finding what they needed in order to reveal that hidden page.

At the end Nero had to admit that V’s arguments were rather sounded, so he turned back in order to return to a previous small path that they had eventually ignored, [parking](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FQBMAS0YR6Y/maxresdefault.jpg) the vehicle there with the intention of spending the night.

“Shit, the backpack is on the trunk”, Nero muttered, while V folded the map several times in silence.

“Go ahead. I will wait for you here.”

Nero snorted when V’s tone indicated that the invoker did not have the least intention of stepping outside the car.

“You are just postponing the inevitable”, Nero warned, opening the door by his side, “your expensive sandals are going to end ruined you want it or not.”

“I remind you I can use Shadow to move, so I hardly doubt your concern is necessary”, V said with a triumphant, arrogant tone when Nero was already outside, causing the devil hunter to roll his eyes with patience.

“Poor cat”, he said while approaching the back of the car, “but now seriously, what do you have against normal clothes? It goes against your code to dress comfy or what?”

“I could ask you something similar, Nero: do you have something against clothes that are not torn?”

Nero exhaled a defeated sigh, since that conversation was a familiar tune and he knew by then he wouldn’t manage to change V’s mind, the same way the invoker wouldn’t change his.

He had barely changed the position of his sword to recover the backpack when Griffon and Shadow manifested outside the car to go further into the forest. His instincts weren’t warning him about any particular danger in their surroundings, but Nero nevertheless tensed after seeing the familiars’ estrange behavior. He was about to reach for his weapon to join them when V talked.

“I have ordered them to keep guard. Just in case.”

Nero nodded and relaxed, entering the car again. V immediately gestured so that Nero gave him the backpack in order to carefully select their dinner. This time Nero didn’t even try to convince V to let him choose. He knew that the invoker would refuse to leave that task to him because V didn’t trust his self-control when eating, and maybe the man wasn’t _that_ wrong with that wary attitude, since when Nero was still in the Order in more than one occasion he had ended starving a little during the missions that lasted several days, due to a rather poor management of his provisions.

Of course, he didn’t plan to tell V that.

“And what about that golem of yours?”, Nero said while accepting the food container V handled him, “doesn’t he need to get some fresh air too? It’s been ages since you summoned him.”

While talking Nero reached for the manual adjustment placed under his seat to slide backwards, in order to have enough space to cross his left ankle on his opposite thigh. He was about to adopt that sitting position when he noticed V looking at his seat with a way too imperturbable expression, before his eyes stopped in his own device.

Nero bit back a chuckle when seeing V’s inquisitive glance, as if the invoker thought that looking intensely at the mechanism was enough to make it move on its own. Without making any comment he reached for the device, sliding V’s seat without any difficulty while the invoker was sitting on it.

“And I’m the old-fashioned one, huh?”

V half-closed his eyes at him as an answer, but Nero was already digging in the food he had ‘discreetly’ taken from the hotel buffet that morning, while the invoker pinched the bridge of his nose some meters away from him while pretending not knowing him instead of helping.

At the end the car’s reparations had taken more time than the mechanic had promised them, which forced them to stay one extra night at the hotel, though it wasn’t as if the previous day had gone to waste. Not for Nero at least, since he had spent the whole morning training after finding V dead asleep in the hotel room, once he came back from his third breakfast. Nero didn’t even think about waking V up immediately, preferring to let him rest until it was time to pick up the repaired car.

When they learned that it wouldn’t be ready until the next day, Nero had barely managed to convince V that using his familiars to threaten ‘ _the foolish, incompetent man_ ’ wasn’t the best way to have the car sooner. Fortunately, V contented himself with asking the man for a monetary retribution for not having respected the agreement, a demand the man accepted almost gratefully, because he had surely detected V’s dangerous aura.

They came back to the hotel afterwards, had some dinner, and also a short but rather satisfying and wild make out session in the bed, that ended with Nero rocking their half-naked bodies together between open-mouth, wet kisses until their respective releases spilled against their clenched stomachs.

When the invoker finished while shakenly panting his name against his half-parted mouth, Nero had _really_ needed to hold back the impulse of asking V for a proper round. Specially because he was kind of craving that V had his way with him again, and it was evident that the invoker didn’t have the energy to do that. He didn’t even have the energy to keep his eyes opened. So, after cleaning the mess caused on their stomachs Nero simply helped a half-asleep V to enter the bed before doing the same.

However, his thoughts kept coming back to how it would be to be _properly_ fucked by V without this one having to be so careful anymore, which forced him to abandon the bed at some point to jerk off in the bathroom all the silently he could not to wake V up.

Once he was back on the bed, curling against V and burying his face on the back of his head to enjoy his scent, Nero _really_ hoped that his libido calmed down as the days passed, because he was rather sure that masturbating four times in a day was not something a person could call ‘normal’. Though well, he wasn’t entirely human to begin with, was he? So perhaps it wasn’t that worrisome. He decided to believe that.

“Regarding Nightmare…”, Nero’s heart skipped a beat when V’s voice broke through his thoughts to answer his previous question, “he is considerably calmer than Shadow and Griffon and does not need to leave that often”, after a small pause, V continued, “and besides, it has not been that long since I invoked him.”

Nero insulted himself when his eyes were way too focused on V’s lips as this one ate, and since he perfectly knew were those thoughts would take him, he cleared his throat a little before answering.

“But I don’t remember having seen the big guy since that fucking forest, where that Chimera almost makes me become a father—”, Nero stopped talking, the joking component of his voice vanishing when seeing the way V tensed, “oh. So you invoked him after it.”

He had formulated the last sentence as an affirmation, but V nodded nevertheless. Nero immediately understood in which situation V had needed to do so. There hadn’t been that many moments during their journey in which they had been apart after all, so he rapidly found some other topic to talk about.

 

“By the way, how the hell do you have so much cash?”

V looked at Nero with confusion.

“Excuse me?”

Nero made a vague gesture with his hand.

“This car, the hotels where we’ve stayed, the meals”, Nero tilted his head a little, “I mean, that’s a bunch of money. Where the hell did you get it?”

V observed at Nero in silence for a couple of seconds before a sardonic smile appeared in his face.

“What a subtle way of diverting the conversation.”

V’s smirk widened when Nero blushed slightly, although deep inside he appreciated the devil hunter’s ‘tact’ to avoid mentioning that incident in Pitchbale, surely knowing that V preferred not to recall it.

“What, did you think I was going to become more subtle after being together?”

V chuckled to himself when Nero grumpily snapped that, taking another bite of his own half-sandwich before shaking his head negatively.

“I would not dare to raise my expectations that much”, he said ironically, making Nero snort with a smile before talking again.

“Hey, but change of topic aside, I really want to know”, Nero also took a bite of his excessively varied and impossible to combine food before pointing at V with his chin, “so can you at least tell me something about that? Just to know if I have to be worried about pissed off people going after us because you stole their money or some bullshit like that. We have enough with all those demons, you know?”

V chuckled shallowly, putting aside his food container.

“Don’t worry, Nero. I assure you that the probabilities of such a thing happening are non-existent.”

Nero half-closed his eyes.

“O - kay...you kind of sound as if you did some fishy stuff to end being that rich.”

V sustained Nero’s gaze but just for a moment, since almost immediately his stare went blank as his mind was drawn to the past, at the place of his memories where a really young Vergil discovered that the outside world was not the kind place his mother had worked so hard to make for Dante and him.

Vergil had been forced to learn fast that the world wasn’t an environment where a boy could survive alone by doing the right thing, especially when half of the Underworld was going after him for the blood that ran through his veins.

The world was cruel, savage, and merciless, and it wouldn’t wait for him to be ready for it, for him to adapt to his new life after everything he once possessed was taken away from him, for him to grow up until having to take decisions that could mark the difference between life and death.

The world wasn’t simple, since in order to see another dawn it demanded to do whatever was necessary to live to the next day.

So Vergil did.

He stole, deceived, killed and used people in order to get what he needed at any moment, being food, a place to stay or money. Sometimes he did so just because, at some point, he simply could.

He got stronger. Strong enough so that his name began to be feared in both worlds. Powerful enough so that whoever that was foolish enough to go after him, being human or demon, realized that only three options remained when coming across him: to run away, to serve him or to die, the second one having an expiration date that Vergil was in charge of setting until he decided that those souls weren’t useful anymore, which usually led to that third option.

He embraced his demon half, burying the human one as deep as he could within himself, since the first proved to be incredibly more convenient. His humanity was only a hindrance. The culprit of that hesitant, guilty voice that sometimes appeared after particularly sanguinary jobs, and that he always tried to silence with the pained cries that raised from the battlefield, or with the pleasured moans of the lovers that he decided to take to his bedroom.

He survived where others didn’t, and even if he could have chosen another path, even if _now_ V would perhaps do things differently, even if he had come to regret certain things Vergil did in the past, above all he was thankful to his past self for being tough enough to stay alive when having the whole world against him.

“V?”

Nero’s hesitant call woke him up from his thoughts. V looked at the devil hunter, and when seeing Nero’s worried expression, he proceeded to finally answer.

“Yes. I did.”

Nero observed him in silence after hearing his laconic reply, and although V managed to keep his face neutral, deep inside he felt a little nervous for the questions Nero could make. After all, despite the fact that Nero’s temperament got him in trouble more times than not, the boy was, as ridiculous as it may sound, quite pure.

The devil hunter had his rude side when fighting with demons, and sometimes he may use what people called ‘unnecessary violence’ to deal with them in the spur of the battle, but it was crystal clear Nero was able to show compassion, something that until very, _very_ recently V had been unable to provide, so he was unsure about what Nero’s reaction could be in case of... _when_ learning about the darkest aspects of his past. About who he had been, and about who he truly was.

Because V knew that moment would come. He wasn’t that naive to believe he could keep the reason of his existence from the boy forever. As Nero had said before, though in another lighter context, he was delaying the inevitable, but he wasn’t ready to face such a situation yet. Not at that moment. Not so soon.

After making his mind once again about keeping silent, V got prepared to answer with half-truths whatever Nero planned to ask. However, as it usually happened with the devil hunter, this one’s reaction fell out of his predictions, since the boy simply exhaled a sigh and shrugged while taking a bite of something that looked like a smashed croquette.

“Well, I’ll just say that, if I were you, I would start saving all that remaining money. Because as awesome as it is to work with me, I’m pretty sure it won’t bring you as many benefits as whatever you were doing before.”

When five seconds had passed and V was still looking at Nero in surprise, the devil hunter observed him with confusion.

“What?”

V blinked twice rapidly, managing not to stutter in his stupor when talking again.

“I had only assumed that you would be more...insistent. That you would want to know more.”

Nero simply shrugged, finishing what remained of his food with a last bite.

“Yeah, I _do_ want to know. And also about a lot of other stuff, like how you got your familiars, or why the fuck you don’t want to tell me how old you are.”

When Nero put his container aside and cleaned his hands on his own jeans, V was ready to make a reproaching comment about it, but then Nero showed an unexpected reassuring smile and V completely forgot about his critic.

“ _But_ I can also notice when you don’t like to talk about certain stuff, or when you are going to be annoyingly cryptic so that I eventually shut up. And besides, some of those things are from the past, and that’s where they should stay. We have our hands full with what’s happening _now_ , with that fucking ‘Demon King’ wanting to conquer the World.”

A chuckle escaped V when hearing the mocking tone Nero adopted when saying Urizen’s title. Adopting that defiant attitude with Urizen wasn’t the best way to guarantee their victory, but reprimanding Nero for his attitude when Vergil had always used arrogance and condescendence to bother his enemies was hypocrite even for him.

Not to mention that Nero’s defiance, though annoying sometimes, could also result incredibly attractive in specific circumstances.

“You certainly have a point. Our present are future are more demanding to attend”, V crossed his arms and leaned against his seat and looked at Nero with amusement, “although I am little curious to hear your theories about all that matters you have mentioned. Would you mind sharing them?”

Nero snorted, but the smirk he offered V indicated him he was going to play along.

“Fine. Regarding the money, my first idea was that you had gained the favor of some rich, old hag, waited for them to die, and inherited their fortune...”

“So you do believe I would be capable of doing such a thing for money? How heartless do you think I am?”

“...but in that case, for sure you would have more of those fancy but totally useless clothes in your belongings...”

“I think it is the first time you admit my clothes are fancy. It is quite an improvement, I must say.”

“...so, my winning theory is that you robbed a bank with your chicken and cat’s help before contacting me to do the job.”

“Flawless deduction, Nero.”

“Thanks, V.”

The tone of the conversation had been ironic, but when speaking again Nero sounded more serious.

“About your familiars, I guess you did some kind of contract with them involving black magic. And about your age, since you really sound like an annoying old man sometimes, maybe you are older than you look, and this…”, Nero signaled him from head to toe with a wide movement of his hand, “...is just the appearance that you have chosen.”

V didn’t change his face while nodding slowly.

“I see that, with the exception of my economy, you have given the matters a thorough thinking”, V offered Nero a teasing smirk to mask that the boy had been pretty accurate in his deductions, “I am flattered that you have invested so much time thinking about my persona.”

Nero blushed a little before snorting.

“Yep, I know I’m weird: who the hell wastes time thinking about the person he loves, huh?”

Hearing that word falling so easily from Nero’s mouth made V gulp, but fortunately Nero was busy making his seat be in a more horizontal position to notice.

“What about you?”, Nero placed his mechanical hand behind his head and lean on it before looking at V again, “anything in particular you want to know about me?”

“No.”

A quiet laugh escaped V when Nero’s eyes opened completely wide in an offended expression after he purposely answered so promptly.

 

“Asshole”, Nero snapped, though his insult lost some strength because of the smile that had appeared in his face, as every time that V laughed like that. As if, for a brief instant, the man didn’t have a worry in the world.

He wished it was always that way. He wished that V wasn’t forced to deal with whatever he was dealing with alone. That he could completely lift that weight from V’s shoulders, because although Nero had the feeling that, in some way, he had managed to make it lighter for the invoker, he knew it was still there.

However, he knew that with V, pressing the matter wasn’t always the best option. He still found almost miraculous that they were together so, for the time being, Nero decided to conform himself with whatever V decided to share. After all the invoker had admitted that it was his first time in a serious relationship, so he couldn’t expect to know everything about V when they had barely been three days together.

V still needed time, and Nero was more than willing to give it to him, while innerly hoping that the day in which V would share everything with him wasn’t as distant as it seemed.

“Actually, I do have a question”, Nero looked at V with interest when a small pause followed V’s words, as if the invoker was struggling a little to find the words, “what do you plan to do after defeating Urizen?”

Nero frowned, not understanding the questions.

“I thought we’ve talked about it already”, he said slowly, suddenly afraid of having misinterpreted something he took for certain, “we both agreed on keeping doing jobs to hunt demons, right?”

“Yes, that part I remember it”, Nero felt relief invading him, though his confusion was back when V continued talking, “but, if my memory doesn’t fail me, your former fiancée commented that you were taking care of some children in Fortuna.”

Nero’s eyes opened more while looking at V, who lifted an eyebrow.

“Am I wrong?”

“No no, you’re right”, Nero rapidly said, surprise still present in his voice, “I only thought that mentioning Kyrie was some kind of taboo, you know? Since yesterday your glare almost killed me when talking about her.”

V blinked, slowly, his expression being enough to call him dumb in capital letters without needing to spell a single word.

“Well, perhaps the fact that you brought her up while I was still enjoying from the afterglow of a rather enjoyable sexual experience had something to do with my irritation.”

Nero gulped, feeling a little aroused for V’s choice of words, though he made sure to take an internal note of not mentioning Kyrie again when they were being intimate unless he wanted to make V angry.

The invoker uncrossed his arms to rub right temple with his right hand, and exhaled a patient sigh at that moment before resuming the previous topic.

“In any case, I would like to know what your intention towards those children is”, V half-closed his eyes at that moment, crossing his arms again even more tightly against his chest, “because, as fond as you may be of them, if your intention after finishing our current mission was to keep living with them in Fortuna with that woman around, I must tell you that I consider such a perspective extremely unappealing to say the least so—”

“I planned to move to Red Grave.”

Nero answered promptly after noticing that V’s tone and posture were turning more and more tense as he spoke. V didn’t relax completely yet, still expectant of a longer explanation that Nero proceeded to give.

“My plan was to crash at _Devil May Cry_ until finding a place to stay, or until having enough cash to rent one. I haven’t told Dante about this yet because he is kind of fallen in combat right now, but if he protests I will simply kick his ass until he accepts”, Nero placed his left hand behind his head too, “and about Julio, Kyle, Carlo _and_ Kyrie, of course I want to keep in touch. They are my family after all. But although Fortuna will always be my hometown, if I ever live with someone…”, Nero looked at V again, finding this one looking at him with an unreadable expression, “...I hope it is with you.”

A thunder sounded in the distance, announcing the imminent arrival of a summer storm, but Nero didn’t come to see the first drops dirtying the front window, his attention exclusively drawn to V when the invoker suddenly stopped leaning against the seat, placed a hand on the driver’s headrest as a support, and leaned forward to deposit a surprisingly soft kiss against his lips.

Despite the innocence the action carried, or maybe precisely because of it, Nero’s heart began to beat faster as his body grew warmer. So, when V pulled back awkwardly, showing an expression that betrayed that the kiss had been an unplanned, impulsive thing, Nero followed him.

Before V could fully rest against the copilot seat again Nero captured his mouth in order to keep kissing over the gear shift. V settled a hand on the back of his neck, his fingers playing with his short hair in the base of his head, causing goosebumps in his body.

With their tongues still entwined in a slow dance that was soon becoming one of Nero’s favorite things to experience, part of the devil hunter wanted that things escalated. Part of him wanted more, _so much_ more. Part of him wanted to drag V to his lap, or being the one in pining the invoker against his seat. Surely having sex in such a narrow space would be complicated, and kind of uncomfortable, but his member was hardening already for the perspectives of pounding inside V or mounting him until that seat broke. Honestly, Nero wasn’t sure which of the two options he preferred at the moment. Probably both. A new proof that being with V may have corrupted him a little.

 

“Lovebirds, sorry to interrupt the romantic moment but maaaybe you want to take a look outside.”

 

Nero’s forming erection completely died when Griffon, who suddenly had manifested inside the car again without any of them noticing, squawked that with hurry. He and V broke the kiss in order to look outside, finally noticing that the rain was pouring down and that, consequently, staying on that dirt road wasn’t the cleverest idea, since the car could end irremediably stuck.

Nero had already started the car when Shadow joined Griffon in the back seats. The panther growled something that only the bird could understand, so during the next fifteen minutes Griffon was in charge of guiding Nero towards a shelter that the panther had found while sweeping the area, consisting of a rather big [cave](https://ak0.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/18115900/thumb/1.jpg) inside which the car could perfectly fit.

“Nice job, cat”, Nero praised when the vehicle was safely parked inside, causing the panther to purr softly, and when hearing an offended flap of wings behind him, he continued, “and nice job playing GPS, _chicken_.”

Griffon nevertheless exhaled a huff before pecking the top of his head with his beak, using enough force to make Nero rub it while exhaling a curse.

“I have also warned you about the rain so be more respectful, _brat_.”

Nero was shifting his body to throw an electric shot at the bird when V hummed to himself, in that way that usually meant that Nero had done something deserving his amusement.

The devil hunter’s attention shifted towards V, who had been storing the food containers back inside the backpack, and immediately his ears burned when noticing the item that V was sustaining in his hand with a teasing smirk in his face.

“You hadn’t mentioned you had acquired new _supplies_.”

Nero’s blush reached his cheeks when V softly shook the box of condoms he had bought in the gas station, when they had stopped to refill before driving towards the swamp. He hadn’t told V then in order to avoid that the invoker teased him, preferring to wait until the suitable moment or, in other words, to the next time they were about to have sex. But of course, V had to go and find them before time, concretely when Griffon and Shadow were present to also laugh at him...

“Uhm...Nero, have you bought _balloons_? Jeez, how childish can you be?”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when realizing that Griffon really meant that question.

He looked at V, and when seeing the way the invoker was staring at the bird with the same stupor, he couldn’t help to burst out laughing as V joined him, though way more quietly.

“Hey, what’s so funny?!”, Griffon protested, while Shadow simply sneaked his head between their seats to sniff the box, as if wondering if there was food inside, “you two: stop laughing already and explain what are those balloons for!”

“Well, certainly their purpose is also devoted to diversion, in a manner of speaking.”

When hearing V’s reply Nero laughed even louder, which encouraged V to keep answering Griffon with ambiguous answers that only served to annoy the bird more.

Griffon protested a couple of more times, but when he didn’t obtain any satisfying answer from V, who was simply paying back all the teasing suffered along the journey, and neither from Nero, who had enough with remembering how to breath during his laughing attack, the bird grumpily vanished on his own volition, followed by Shadow who was still looking a little confused.

“Oh fuck”, Nero exhaled, making a grimace while changing his posture because his sides really hurt, “I think Griffon is going to leave you on your own in the next battle.”

V didn’t look particularly worried about such an outcome, probably because he knew that the bird was kinder than he showed and would never allow him to be injured as long as he was there to avoid it.

“I still have Shadow and Nightmare, so there is no reason to worry”, V proceeded to organize the backpack, “I will keep watch first.”

Nero nodded while yawning. He could definitely use some sleep because spending the whole day driving was always tiring. He was debating himself between removing his arm, to sleep more comfortably, or leave it on, to be ready in case demons decided to attack, when he noticed that V had extracted the stuffed animal he got in Pitchbale’s festival in order to better store the rest of the things.

The invoker noticed his surprised look and frowned.

“What is with that expression of stupor?”

Nero shook his head lightly.

“I didn’t know you had kept it”, Nero pointed at V with his chin teasingly, even if he felt happy that V hadn’t discarded his present even after their sounded fight, “maybe among the two you are the most childish.”

Nero was about to laugh when V half-closed his eyes at him with annoyance, while adopting immediately _that_ sarcastic tone that Nero had learned to differentiate from the usual one, and that showed the invoker was mildly embarrassed.

“I remind you that _you_ were the one who forced this present on me, Nero. And for your information, it is a complete waste of space considering the truly valuable things we need to carry, so I can assure that if it was up to me, I wouldn’t have the least trouble in discarding it for the sake of—”

V was so busy uselessly trying to defend a point that needed absolutely no defense that Nero hadn’t the least difficulty in closing the gap between them, silencing V with a firm kiss and causing the invoker’s eyes to flutter close while sighing during it.

“See you in a couple of hours, V”, Nero simply said against his lips after separating, positioning the plushie over the glove compartment so that it was facing the invoker, “he will keep you company in the meantime.”

Nero leaned against his seat, closed his eyes, and proceeded to get some rest with a smile on his lips, since he could perfectly hear the quiet chuckle that V had uselessly tried to hide from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Griffon, being bullied like that xDD
> 
> Also, confession time: initially, this fic was going to be around 25 chapters, _but_ then I thought it was a pity NOT to cover the whole month completely and decided to add some extra 5 chapters at the end to finish this fic with 30 exact chapters. So, if from now on a chapter feels like a 'filler' in which basically Nero and V are just bonding or _bonding_ (*wink* *wink*), you know the reason for it xDD


	25. (June 9) - Last stop (NSFW)

**_June 9 - 12:34 a.m._ **

At the end it had been a good decision to postpone the search of the sanctuary until the following day, since the information contained in the book they found in Mallet was not too precise about the situation of the temple, which forced V and Nero to spend the entire morning searching for it.

Also, V’s current footwear was not the most appropriate for the [terrain](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcel_Silvius/publication/259668563/figure/fig7/AS:614321704939521@1523477116025/Peat-swamp-forest-at-Tuanan-Photograph-by-M-Silvius.png), and using Shadow all the time was not an option because the familiar had enough with trying to detect the bigger source of demonic power, which would surely correspond to the position of the sanctuary. So, V contented himself with using his cane as a support to advance, being even more careful than usual in his walking not to trip. He wanted to avoid the never-ending ‘ _I told you_ ’s Nero would surely say in case such a thing happened, after V had ignored every single advice about wearing more comfortable shoes.

When several hours had passed since they left the car behind in that cave, V was beginning to fear the possibility of not finding their destination when Griffon, who as usual was investigating several steps ahead in order to avoid running into demons, reappeared next to him with and happily announced the temple was close.

“Finally”, Nero huffed when finally the [sanctuary](https://i.redd.it/bai79assqj411.png) was in front of them, removing the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, “fuck, it couldn’t be more hidden, could it?”

“Well, considering that its use was mainly devoted to perform dark, forbidden magic, I think its position is quite justified.”

Nero answered his ironic reply with a deadpan expression.

“Thanks for the explanation, V.”

“You are welcome”, V answered obligingly, pretending not having detected Nero’s sarcasm.

The boy rolled his eyes and let the backpack hang from his right shoulder, in order to reach inside with his left hand.

“That fucking herb better be there”, Nero extracted a bottle of water and took a sip before offering it to V, who accepted it to drink as well, “you sure that’s the _only_ missing ingredient to reveal that page?”

V nodded.

“I am. And before you ask, yes: I am sure we will find it here, because otherwise the people of the temple would have been unable to perform those rituals”, he returned the bottle to Nero, half closing his eyes at the devil hunter when seeing his skeptic look, “I detect certain distrust, Nero. Don’t you believe me?”

The boy huffed.

“I do trust _you_ ”, Nero’s lack of hesitation in making such a statement pleased V more than he would ever admit, “but given our luck, maybe we only find another incomprehensible hint instead of that plant.”

V could understand Nero’s reticence to believe that they were actually reaching the end of the journey. After all, since the trip started, their pursuit of knowledge about Urizen’s plan had forced them to go travelling from one place to another as leads never stopped coming up.

However, this time V felt deep within himself that the swamp was their final stop, and the place that would finally allow them to discover what Urizen plan was, even a way to put an end to it, though probably he was being overly optimistic about that last part.

“Fear not, Nero”, for once, V was the one in sounding more convinced while proceeding further inside the temple, “I am quite sure that, this time, there would not be any cryptic message waiting for us.”

* * *

“So... what were you saying, V?”

The way V turned slowly to look at him with an utterly annoyed expression helped lower Nero’s own deep annoyance. A thorough look around the temple had convinced them that the herb they were looking for wasn’t there, and that the only thing worthy of some attention was that wall of the temple they were currently observing, where _an incomprehensible, cryptic message had been written_.

“Nero, if you do not have anything useful to say, you could very much remain silent.”

“Hey, don’t you dare to take it out on me! It’s not my fault that this fucking plant isn’t here.”

“Certainly not, but I hardly doubt that your tantrum helps to make it appear.”

Nero exhaled an annoyed groan and separated from the wall while rubbing his nape, preferring to put some distance between V and him because as much as he loved the invoker, the man could be completely exasperating when something didn’t go according to his plans.

“Wow wow, guys, this isn’t the time for a lovers quarrel!”, Griffon intervened at that moment, approaching V to also observe the inscription as Shadow approached Nero, who was walking in circles to calm himself as well, “can you read what it says?”

Nero heard V sigh behind him as he observed his surroundings with more attention, frowning then noticing something.

“With time, I could. But I cannot assure the effort is worth it.”

“And what if Shadow and I sweep the area a little more? Maybe we can find—”

“We are in the wrong place.”

When hearing him, V and Griffon turned to look at him with surprise. Foreseeing that V was surely going to express his skepticism in a sarcastic way, Nero continued talking with his arms crossed.

“You said it yourself before. This place was used to do some dark stuff, yeah? Well, _this_ room is way too exposed for that. In Fortuna, Agnus’ lab was practically impossible to find unless you were purposely looking for it. He would have never dared to carry out his experiments in the main room of the castle, and I doubt people did the same here.”

V evaluated his words with a serious expression before talking with an interested tone.

“What you say has sense, but in order to find that secret room you mention, probably we still need to decipher this message to—”

Nero extracted Blue Rose, pointed at the wall, and emptied his loader by shooting at the empty space between V and Griffon. The bird squawked in shock before beginning to insult him for his imprudence, while V simply blinked once before turning to assess the damage of the completely blown up wall, behind which a dark passage was revealed.

“There you have it”, Nero said triumphantly as V turned to look at him again.

“Did you even consider the possibility of being destroying our only lead before shooting?”

The fake calm tone that V used didn’t scare Nero one bit. He simply approached the wall, removed some more rubble from the ground, and met V’s glare with a confident expression.

“Nope, but in my experience this is usually the most efficient way to solve any riddles”, Nero signaled inside the passage with his head, “I’ll lead the way.”

Nero could perfectly picture the exasperated face V was showing when hearing Griffon mutter a resigned: ‘ _Don’t look at me. You fell in love with him_ ’ that didn’t fail to make Nero smile, especially after V didn’t deny it.

 

As simplistic and unreasonable Nero’s argument had been to justify his destruction of the sanctuary wall, the boy’s intuition turned to be correct and the passage led them directly to a rather circular big area that clearly looked as a sacrifice room.

“Damn”, Nero muttered, frowning when seeing the stony ground stained with dried blood, “do you think there are still people that do this kind of things?”

V was glad to be giving his back to Nero, since his hand passed to settle against his partly exposed chest in an impulsive gesture, after the pain Vergil had experienced when digging Yamato in his own flesh, when ‘sacrificing’ himself in order to acquire more power, came back to him.

“If I’m not mistaken, you were directly involved in one event of that kind”, V decided to eventually answer, going further inside the room to approach one of the stony columns around which a bindweed was tangled, “after all, that was how Sanctus’ Knights came to exist.”

After a pause, Nero talked with surprise.

“Wait, so you have been in Fortuna?”

“Yes. But it was a long time ago”, noticing Nero was going to ask more, V proceeded to change the topic, “this is it.”

It took Nero a moment to understand what V meant, and when he did, he cursed incredulously while approaching him.

“Really?”, V felt Nero behind him, looking over his shoulder as V proceeded to gather the plant, “holy shit, I can’t believe we have found it at the first attempt.”

“First attempt? I remind you we have needed to ‘solve a riddle’ to do it.”

V shivered when Nero bit his shoulder suddenly from behind, probably as a payback for his sarcastic answer.

“Shut up. We managed to find what we were looking for.”

V had to reluctantly give Nero that, so he took the herb carefully and stored it inside one of the empty food containers Nero handled him.

“Okay, let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."

The devil hunter had barely placed the container inside his bag and was about to wear it again when something changed in the ambience, as if something that wasn’t there before passed to surround them.

The temperature dropped several degrees at that moment, causing a rather thick mist to slowly cover the whole room, and V regretted that his coat didn’t have sleeves because the shivers traversing by his body were powerful enough to make his body shake a little.

“Shit”, Nero snapped, coping a little better with the cold even if steam came of his mouth when talking, “what the hell is going on? A moment ago it was hot as hell and now—”

When the devil hunter stopped talking V looked at him confused, frowning when seeing the boy’s eyes opening more for a second. He shifted his body to look back at the center of the room, following Nero’s gaze.

What had attracted the devil hunter’s attention was a pair of creatures that could be barely glimpsed through the mist. They both were glowing with a green light and had the appearance of young, beautiful, naked woman, which only potentiated the demonic aura they already oozed.

“Oh shit, not _again_.”

Nero said that with an annoyed tone that showed it wasn’t the first time he didn’t deal with that kind of demons. V was about to ask Nero for more information when both creatures began to slowly approach, giggling to themselves in a way that tried to be seductive but that was only disturbing.

V invoked both Shadow and Griffon and was about to command them to attack when the ground under them began to tremble, as if something really heavy was also coming for them.

“ _V, jump aside_!”

The invoker did, no questions asked, and thanks to that he was able to avoid the lunge of the massive toad-like demon that revealed itself behind those glowing demons, that V realized now were being used as a rather pathetic bait.

Nero didn’t lose time in attacking the demon’s back with his sword charged at its maximum. The attack caused the demon to growl in protest before turning towards them with his eyes shining furiously.

“T h a t  w e a p o n… t h a t  s m e l l . . .”, the toad talked with a cavernous voice, “y o u   a r e  t h a t  d a m n  h u m a n  t h a t  k i l l e d  m y  b r o t h e r s !”

“Hey now, I only killed _one_ of those frogs”, Nero commented with a taunting smirk, swinging his sword before clenching and unclenching his mechanic arm to warm it up, “Dante was the one to blame for killing the second.”

V looked at Nero out of the corner of his eye, curious to hear that story involving both Nero and the younger son of Sparda, but Nero’s provoking words worked on the demon who growled even more furiously before attacking again.

“Y o u  p i e c e  o f  l o w e r  f l e s h !  I , Z a g a m , w i l l  d o  w h a t  m y  b r o t h e r s  c o u l d n ‘ t ! “

After Nero easily avoided Zagam’s tongue-attack, Griffon was forced to take V out of the way when the toad focused his efforts on the invoker.

“Jeez, kid, why do you always have to run your mouth like that?”, Griffon protested, but Nero ignored the critic while cartwheeling on the ground to avoid the shoot of ice that the frog spat at him.

“Focus on the spikes!”, Nero shouted after V landed on the ground again, “he’ll attack with them if we don’t destroy them.”

At that moment not even V took it personally for being ordered around, deciding to trust Nero’s strategy. While Nero had the toad entertained with his shots V extracted his poetry book to upgrade Griffon’s attacks so that his bolts were more powerful. The combination of the crow’s lightning bolts, Shadow’s spikes and Nero’s shots and slices managed to destroy the toad’s deathly spikes.

They didn’t waste the opportunity to deliver more combos of powerful attacks when that happened, in order to defeat the demon once and for all. When the gigantic beast fell backwards with his tongue hanging out his mouth and didn’t move for several seconds, Nero separated from it with a long sigh, sheathing his sword behind his back.

Fortunately, V didn’t lower his guard so soon, which allowed him to detect a faint movement in one of its glowing feelers.

“Nero, he is still breathing.”

Despite his quick warning and Nero’s speed to point at the demon with his gun, neither of them was able to avoid the expansive wave that shook the area after the toad jumped on the ground, with an agility that was quite impressive considering its size. Both Nero and V fell onto his knees, ending completely exposed to the toad’s next attack: a breath of ice that left them partly frozen on the ground.

When seeing them struggling to liberate themselves from the ice prison, the toad laughed boisterously while regenerating its spikes.

“N o w  y o u  a r e n ’ t  t h a t   t a l k a t i v e”, the toad said with satisfaction, too busy with its mocking to notice both Griffon and Shadow re-emerging behind him, “a n y t h i n g   t o  s a y  b e f o r e  I  e a t   y o u?”

Even if he couldn’t move, V saw that Nero had also noticed his familiars waiting for his command because the boy nodded imperceptibly, before offering a stuttering smirk at Zagam.

“Oh yeah, I have”, Nero said, purposely attracting the demon’s attention.

“S p e a k  t h e n . ”

“You are even more stinkier than your brothers.”

“Y o u  l i t t l e . . . !”

“ _Demolish._ ”

Griffon and Shadow accompanied V’s snarled command by attacking Zagam at the same time so that the toad didn’t move from its spot, allowing Nightmare to emerge from the ground just under the toad. The demon growled when finding himself out of balance and fell backwards again. The golem jumped on him to deliver a couple of slow but powerful punches that left the demonic dizzy enough to finish the battle with his violet beam, defeating the beast once and for all.

When the toad fell dead, the ice keeping Nero and V captive vanished into thin air, allowing them to finally move again. The harm was done though, and the fact that Nero and him couldn’t stop convulsing indicated that surely the ice Zagam had used wasn’t ordinary, and that their lives now could be in actual risk.

“H-Holy shit”, Nero hissed, uselessly rubbing his arms in an attempt of heating up, “t-that asshole took us g-good, huh?”

As V’s hair turned black again, he approached Nero while fighting against the shivers invading his body. Under normal circumstances, the best option would be coming back to the cave and the car. However, going there on foot was impracticable considering their current state. He could try to give Shadow more power to bring them there, but he doubted they could arrive there before freezing to death.

At that moment there was only one thing to do: to warm up before their body temperature dropped too much too fast.

“Shadow, go outside and gather some wood”, V commanded, “Griffon, sweep the sanctuary to find the smallest, secluded room you can find.”

“Roger that.”

Noticing the situation was critical both familiars obeyed without protesting, while V placed a hand on Nero’s shoulders.

“Try to control the shakes”, he advised, seeing that Nero’s body was beginning to tremble too spasmodically, “it will be worse if you don’t.”

Nero nodded shakily before cursing, probably feeling annoyed for not having avoided that last attack.

In no time Griffon was back. The bird guided them rapidly through a lateral corridor of the sanctuary that eventually ended in a small [alcove](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7245/7293846886_ec1ddafbe5.jpg). Inside, Shadow had stacked some wood in the middle of it that Griffon proceeded to ignite by throwing a bolt towards it. The atmosphere grew warmer but that wasn’t enough to recover, so V led Nero close to the fire and began to undress.

Despite the dizziness Nero was experiencing due to the cold, the devil hunter’s eyes opened slightly more while observing V beginning to untie his corset. V rolled his eyes with impatience, signaling at Nero’s clothes with his eyes.

“You should discard them too. You will never heat up by having those wet clothes stuck to your skin.”

Nero’s eyes finally stopped lingering through his body in order to do the same with movements that were clumsier and slower than usual. Half of their clothes had been removed and V was about to discard his pants when Shadow and Griffon appeared again, carrying a rather big piece of torn off cloth that had seen better days, and that in the past it should have been a curtain.

“It’s not much but it’s better than nothing”, Griffon said handling it to V, “anything else we can do?”

“Keep watch”, V simply said, settling the fabric on the ground the closest he could to the fire but without of it accidentally catching fire, “probably the demons around would have noticed Zagam’s death and it’s not unreasonable to think they will try to take control of the area.”

After his familiars disappeared V finished undressing completely. He left his clothes next to the fire and lied down on the fabric.

“Come here.”

Nero, who had barely left his clothes next to his, stared at him wide-eyed.

“What?”

Aware that with Nero actions worked better than words, he reached up with his hand to grab Nero’s wrist in order to guide the boy to kneel between his legs. He softly dragged Nero forward so that the boy lied completely against him. Nero helped him rearrange the fabric, which fortunately was big enough to cover them both, before leaning both of his forearms on either side of his head. Nero’s body was shivering and was as cold as his, but he kept it close by settling both of his hands on Nero’s waist.

“Have you never needed to do this not to die from hypothermia?”, V inquired with an ironic, still trembling tone, causing Nero over him to look at him from above with a frown.

“No. Have you?”

A small smirk appeared in V’s face when noticing some discomfort in Nero’s tone.

“Perhaps.”

He was lying. Vergil had never needed to recur to other’s help in order to survive a life or death situation. After all, with the exceptions of a very few missions in which he had needed to use of people to achieve his goals, he had carried out most part of his jobs alone, so during the moments in which his life had been at risk he had been forced to survive on his without any extra help.

Therefore, V’s knowledge about human contact being quite important to survive to that kind of situations was purely theoretical. However, it was more amusing to make Nero believe he had lied with that with someone else, since seeing the boy snort when hearing his cryptic reply while uselessly trying to hide his strike of jealousy was quite a sight.

“Well, as long as it prevented you from ending dead”, Nero eventually said, provoking an inner warmth in V, as every time that the boy expressed his concern for his well-being.

He hoped that, one day, he would get used to Nero caring about him without having to be afraid of losing what he had come to have with Nero. Without having to stand that background fear that appeared whenever he tried to imagine what Nero’s reaction would be after he was complete, after learning that his assumptions of V not being his true self had been more correct than he thought.

V’s turbulent thoughts were broken at that moment when Nero suddenly chuckled.

“What is it?”, V inquired with curiosity, making the devil hunter shake his head with a smile.

“Imagine this happening to us a week ago.”

V snorted softly.

“We would have probably died before agreeing to be like this.”

Nero laughed, shifting a little his position to be more comfortable.

“Yeah, we would, given that you jumped like a fucking cat whenever I touched you.”

“I cannot fathom from where you have obtained such an erroneous conclusion about my behavior.”

“Really? Because I still remember the glare you threw at me when I tried to give you a massage in Mallet.”

“My apologies but given your usual brusqueness, you should understand my reluctance at the moment in trusting you for such a delicate task.”

“Oh yeah, because it’s obvious you hate when I’m brusque.”

V rolled his eyes when hearing Nero’s last cocky argument. It was evident the boy was referring to him enjoying that characteristic in bed, and since for once the boy had a point, V decided to let pass the chance to reply.

As the seconds passed, their proximity and the fire crackling next to them began to take effect, provoking their shivers to recede until they practically disappeared.

“I’m feeling better now”, Nero announced then.

“So am I.”

After a small pause Nero talked again.

“Maybe we should leave before more demons come.”

“The clothes are still wet I remind you. We should wait a little more until they dry.”

“Oh. Right.”

The next silence that fell between them was charged with a tension that V could immediately recognize, not to mention that due to their position V could perfectly feel how Nero’s member had just twitched slightly for the perspective of continuing lying there more, together and naked.

However, it seemed that Nero didn’t dare to initiate anything on his own yet, so adopting his best casual tone V proceeded to take that responsibility.

“Do you perhaps have something in mind to kill the time?”, he asked against Nero’s lips, accompanying his movement with an undulation of his hips that provoked their lower halves to connect.

That was all it took so that Nero’s fake composed expression was twisted momentarily in pleasure. The devil hunter grunted in the back of his throat before ravaging V’s mouth, rocking his body down against V’s in a way that made the invoker hum in arousal.

 

Nero groaned with need when V flexed his legs at that moment, pressing his thighs on either side of his waist as if encouraging him to rut against him harder. And damn, Nero wanted to do it, but he was afraid of hurting V if he lost control and went too hard on him. The ground wasn’t precisely soft after all.

“ _Fuck_ ”, Nero exhaled while sinking his teeth in V’s neck, hands reaching around to grab V’s ass in order to pull him in against him instead, increasing the intensity of the grinding until the first loud moan finally escaped V.

V’s fingers landed on his shoulders when Nero licked and sucked at the invoker’s chest, knowing it was one of V’s weaknesses. The invoker bit his lower lip and arched his body, muttering an urgent ‘ _Rougher_ ’ with his eyes shut closed. Nero proceeded to comply, pulling at the hardened bud with his teeth in a way that _had_ to hurt a little but that caused V to grunt in approval, the invoker’s nails digging on his back with each bite in a way that made Nero’s member spasm with arousal.

Damn, he had always thought that V was more the sadistic type rather than the masochistic one, but knowing that the man was able to combine the two depending on the situation was really hot.

The devil hunter had just captured V’s mouth again and was about to stroke V’s member to full hardness when V broke the kiss to speak against his lips.

“Nero”, V breathed, his ragged tone betraying the same urge of fucking right then and there that Nero was experiencing, “how do you wish to do it?”

“I don’t know”, Nero admitted against V’s lips, his eyes a little feral while looking at V, “I want both.”

V chuckled, his hands travelling up until settling on Nero’s shoulders, making Nero put a momentary stop to their grinding.

“I’m afraid that I do not possess your stamina anymore, so you will have to pick one.”

Nero gulped softly and after some seconds of thinking he separated from V to gather their backpack. V smirked with amusement when he extracted the box of condoms and also a new bottle of lube.

“So prepared”, V teased as Nero popped the bottle open, but the invoker didn’t have time to add anything else, the man’s eyes opening more when, after pouring some liquid on his fingers, Nero reached back with his left hand to prepare himself while leaning forward in order to seek V’s lips again.

V’s left hand settled on his nape. The invoker took control of the kiss to turn it deeper, while using his right hand to tease Nero’s erogenous areas in order to facilitate the preparation process. Nero stopped when his fingers brushed against that spot he hoped to be able to find on his own later, not wanting to end too close to the edge. He also removed V’s hand from his member, already hard for the way the invoker had been pumping it as Nero fingered himself.

His little display and the gasps that had escaped him during the foreplay hadn’t left V indifferent, who without averting his lust-hazed green eyes from him opened the box of condoms in order to extract one, immediately covering his erected member with it. After lubricating it, V was going to sit straight but Nero was faster settling on his lap, using his strength to pin him against the ground.

“Let me.”

V’s eyes darkened more when Nero’s voice quivered a little in anticipation. The invoker kept his member erected with his right hand as Nero positioned over it, his breathing accelerated when feeling the tip of V’s member nudging against his entrance.

“Hurry up.”

The need dripping from V’s voice was what encouraged Nero to drop onto V without further delay.

“Oh. Fuck. _Yes_ ”, Nero said, almost with relief, furrowing his brows as V’s member spread him open, slowly but without pause.

He looked down and his own dick twitched when seeing V having difficulties on his own to keep his eyes opened, on the contrary than his mouth that was half-parted in a silent groan.

“Nero, _move_.”

Definitely V being commanding during sex didn’t bother him but just the exact damn opposite, Nero had time to think before beginning to drag himself up and down, up and down, quickly building up a pace that had him bouncing on V in no time because fuck, he had wanted to do this quite badly.

 

V’s hands hook on Nero’s legs the moment the devil hunter began to move, Nero’s human and mechanical hands settling over his immediately after. V could feel Nero’s strained thighs under his hands because of the effort the boy was making to avoid dropping completely on him, which would surely strain his lower back.

Still, the controlled rhythm Nero had adopted was extremely good, coordinated but hard, enough to force V to tense in order not to come too quick. It was going to be difficult not to though. Nero riding him was quite a sight, with the fire illuminating his upper muscles and the way the devil hunter was grunting his name.

V had barely enclosed a hand around Nero’s member when suddenly the boy stilled his movements, causing V to bite his lower lip not to whine in frustration when the satisfying rhythm was interrupted, breaking the building of an orgasm that promised to be rather fulfilling.

“You heard that?”

“Heard what?”, V said in a strained, impatient tone that clearly indicated he wanted Nero to keep taking him in with that extremely satisfying pace.

Needless to say, Nero didn’t do it, frowning while looking behind him

“I think there are demons outside. Maybe we should join your pets to—”

V thrusted up inside Nero in order to silence his nonsense. He had the luck of rubbing the boy’s prostate with the movement, causing Nero to moan louder as his head snapped backwards.

“They are more than capable to deal with it on their own, so now...”, V straightened briefly in order to force Nero’s head down with one hand to bite-kiss his lips, the other hand tightening around his member, “...I would appreciate your full attention.”

 

The invoker didn’t fail to redirect Nero’s focus by accompanying the roll of his hips with hard pumps that made the devil hunter curse heatedly. Nero rocked back and forth while trying to match the rhythm V was using to masturbate him, his mouth not wanting to separate from V’s for long despite the risk of their teeth clashing together for the increasing rhythm of their fucking.

V’s strokes managed to push Nero to the edge first. The devil hunter threw his head slightly back with his eyes closed as his cum spilled through V’s fingers. The invoker followed soon after, exhaling a long, stuttered breath against the shell of Nero’s ear as this one leaned his forearms on the ground.

Nero laughed breathlessly and lowered his head to settle his face against the crook of V’s neck, feeling V’s chest going up and down against his own.

“What?”, V managed to say in a voice that sounded tired but quite sated, as Nero himself felt.

“Nothing. I just wasn’t expecting you gave priority to fuck over a fight.”

V surprised Nero by laughing quietly before shifting his eyes down, offering him a condescending look that didn’t match his relaxed, post-orgasmic smile.

“I simply dislike doing things by halves, and as I said Griffon and Shadow had everything under control.”

Nero snorted softly, but he was smiling too when kissing V briefly before abandoning his lap. While V discarded the used condom, Nero rearranged the fabric so that it was covering them both once again. He lied next to the invoker on his right side, in order to urge V to turn towards him by placing his warmer hand on the man’s exposed hip.

“At least we won’t be dying from hypothermia any time soon.”

“Indeed we will not”, V’s tone gained curiosity, “so you had already encountered a demon of that kind before.”

“Yeah, in Fortuna. I beat the crap out of one of those frogs and Dante did it with the other.”

 

Since Nero was busy following the tattooed patterns that still remained in his body, the boy failed to see the hesitation that passed through V’s eyes before recovering his almost neutral expression.

“How was it?”, Nero looked at him without understanding, “fighting alongside Dante I mean."

Nero barked a laugh and shook his head.

“It’s easier to say how it was to fight _against_ him.”

V’s eyes opened more in surprise.

“Did you fight against each other?”, Nero nodded, “I was under the wrong assumption that you both had collaborated together.”

“Yeah, well, our goals kind of aligned at the end but my initial mission consisted of capturing him after all the mess he caused.”

V offered Nero an amused smirk.

“That part I know”, it was Nero’s turn to look at him confused, “when hiring Dante’s services, he talked about you. He said you were quite talented, despite never having been able to defeat him.”

“He said _what_?”, Nero snapped with an outraged tone that came out extremely childish, “the only reason why I haven’t wiped the floor with his old ass is because we haven’t had the chance to fight again! But after we rescue him, I will show that bastard that this ‘deadweight’ can very much beat him.”

V chuckled with amusement, changing position again to be facing up but being close enough to Nero to feel this one’s warm chest gracing his arm and his breathing against his cheek.

“I would not claim victory so soon. As exasperating as that man can be, he is called The Legendary Devil Hunter for a reason”, V’s mind drifted to his past memories, “he does not give up easily, no matter the circumstances, so defeating him may not be an easy task.”

The small shocked pause that followed made V tense, after realizing that the comfortable mood had made him reveal too much. He made sure to divert the topic for second time that day, before Nero had the chance of asking something he could not risk to answer.

“We should leave”, V disentangled himself from Nero in order to reach for his clothes, which fortunately were acceptably dry to wear them again, “if we travel fast enough, perhaps we arrive in time for the last train.”

V was fearing that Nero didn’t agree on dropping the subject, or that Nero tried to press him for answers, making him go with half-backed truths again. However, after a tense silence that heavily betrayed the boy’s need for answers, Nero also reached for his own clothes, proceeding to dress as well.

“You better use Shadow to move then”, Nero offered V a teasing glance, “because with your stylish walking in the swamp, we won’t reach the car until tomorrow.”

V was about to protest against the reasonable critic when Griffon and Shadow suddenly appeared.

“Hey, V, we have eradicated all demons in 500 meters at least! You don’t have to thank us for—”, Griffon stopped talking while flapping his wings, looking pointedly at their half-dressed, disheveled appearance, “well, well: you have spared no effort to warm yourselves, haven’t you?”

V rolled his eyes when Griffon began to laugh at his own joke, finishing putting his coat on while Nero, still shirtless, buckled his pants.

“Yep, and we have also played with the balloons.”

V pinched the bridge of his nose when Griffon was naive enough to ask further.

He was expecting the squawk the bird let out when Nero crudely explained what the ‘balloons’ were used for, but the sound was still irritating to hear.

“So…”, Nero said once they were fully dressed, after Griffon and Shadow left on their own volition with respective disgusted expressions in their faces, “...no more stops?”

V smiled to himself when hearing Nero’s lightly incredulous tone.

“No, Nero. We are finally coming back to Red Grave.”

He partly shared Nero’s relief when this one exhaled a loud ‘ _Hell, yeah_ ’, but part of him couldn’t help to feel afraid for seeing the ending of a journey that he wasn’t entirely sure to be able to experience with Nero again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not very much plot in this chapter, I know, but I had planned that 'warming up' scene since the beginning of the fic and I wanted to make it appear no matter what, even if that meant killing a poor gigantic toad in the process for it xDD


	26. (June 10) - A forgotten memory (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm out for work, this week I barely had time to write _anything_ , and although I would have liked to update the modern AU fic I needed to be more focused for the upcoming chapter, so I decided to update this (for once!) extremely short chapter instead :)

**_June 10 - ???? (24 years ago)_ **

When the door of the bar opened, the chiming sound of the bell hanging over the frame attracted the gazes of several clients towards the newcomer’s direction. However, there was an advantage of being in one of the most secluded areas of Fortuna, and it was that the citizens gathering inside at that time of the night were looking for the same thing: a place to get lost for a while from the outer world surrounding them.

Therefore, the presence of a clearly suspicious man dressed in a brown, hooded cloak was soon ignored by everyone, who resumed their own business being it whispering among them, drowning their sorrows in alcohol, or simply killing time until having to come back to an existence that probably was grey and mundane, almost miserable.

Out of habit, Vergil quickly observed the room in a scrutinizing way, taking note of the best spots to use to his advantage whether a fight decided to take place out of nowhere, something that happened more times that he would wish because he always seemed to attract trouble that he did not always deserve.

Once he finalized his analysis, he approached the bar counter with slow elegance to sit down on one of the remaining high chairs. Without removing his hood at any moment, Vergil leaned his arms on the wooden, slightly sticky surface, interlacing his fingers before making his order.

His gintonic was placed in front of him mere minutes later. Most part of the clients had been served already, and some of them were so wasted that it wouldn’t be difficult for the barman to convince them that a glass of water was one of his best goods.

Vergil clicked his tongue in disapproval when a man sitting a couple of seats on his right snored, probably after having fallen unconscious for too much drinking. He was about to take the first sip of his drink, thinking to himself that surely that pathetic fool had not enough reasons to behave in such a way, when a movement coming from his left caught his attention.

He turned his face a little towards that direction, his eyes landing on the feminine figure sitting on the furthest corner of the counter. The woman was dressing in a a red, also hooded cloak that prevented him from seeing her face properly. However, her straight posture and her smooth and delicate hands betrayed she came from a good lineage, or that at the very least she had received a nice education. 

The older son of Sparda’s intuition about that woman being quite beautiful was confirmed when a new chime of the bell caused her to look towards it. A hint of apprehension bathed her symmetrical features, just to disappear after probably confirming that the people who entered the place were not the ones responsible of her distress.

Vergil’s eyes met the woman’s when she was about to recover her previous posture.

The mysterious woman held his gaze without hesitation, something quite rare that not everyone was able to do, and the light defiance her expression showed when doing so, enough to be attractive but not too much to be considered disrespectful, convinced Vergil to give the next step.

Without breaking eye contact at any moment he took his untouched glass, stood on the ground again, and got closer as the air hanging between them grew thicker.

Vergil sat down in the chair next to the woman. He took a sip in silence, deposited his glass on the counter again, and with his eyes purposely travelling from her quite impressive blue eyes to her mouth, he talked with a serene tone that contrasted with the want shining in his grey stare. 

“Shall we?”

* * *

Vergil’s teeth sank in the woman’s neck as he ruthlessly pounded into her, his fingers digging in the back of her now exposed thighs to have more room to thrust inside her with the rhythm his body was demanding. 

The woman’s pleasured whimpers turned louder with the increasing pace. Her arms enclosed tighter around Vergil’s shoulders while rocking down to meet his slams, her coordination and the easy way Vergil had completely sank inside her proving that what was happening was not a first time for her.

Better, Vergil thought. The day had been quite frustrating, since he had been forced to eradicate some demons that had proved to be more useless than he had assumed they would be, so he was not in the mood for an inexperienced partner unable to satisfy his thirst for a rough session of sex, like the one he was deeply enjoying at the moment.

The alley where they were perpetrating that primitive, theoretically illegal act was far from being clean, and the smell lingering around was not the best either, but neither Vergil and his lover for the night seemed to mind at the moment, being focused on riding their pleasure together without minding who could hear or see them.

“ _Ah_ …oh, Savior... _ahn!_ ”

The woman, whose name Vergil had not bothered to ask because he knew he would forget her existence by the next day, whined that profanity when, after securing her right leg around his waist, Vergil reached down to slide his gloved fingers through her wet, trembling folds. She had deserved such compensation after all. The fellatio she had given him after abandoning the bar was close to be one of the best he had ever received, so Vergil made his best to pay her back by providing her with the best orgasm he could deliver.

He rubbed the woman’s clit as the force of his hips was all he needed to keep her body caged and raised against the bricked wall. His merciless rhythm didn’t falter at any moment, not even after the woman’s high-pitched, desperate moans gradually grew in frequency just to be lost in an orgasm that shook her whole body against him. 

Usually Vergil managed to keep his head cool enough to pull away in the last second, but it had been a couple of weeks since the last time he had such gratifying sexual experience. Also, the way the woman’s cunt clenched around his member after coming was too delicious to let it go, so Vergil chased the feeling until the end, filling the woman with his release while shakingly groaning for the force of his own climax. 

She, unconsciously or not, milked him completely until Vergil was forced to shut his eyes closed for how good it felt, letting out a strained, ragged grunt against the shell of the woman’s ear that had her shivering once again in his arms.

He felt that the woman was going to turn her head with the intention of kissing him again, so he proceeded to separate from her while settling the woman’s trembling figure on the ground. He didn’t mind to kiss during sex, since a good, deep kiss could always potentiate the experience, but doing it afterwards, after the lust finally settled down, held an intimacy that he was not willing to ever share with anyone.

As it usually happened after one encounter of that nature, the post-orgasmic feeling lingering in his body was soon followed by the familiar emptiness that by then he considered his fellow traveler. 

Vergil suppressed a resigned sigh and tucked his softened member inside his trousers as the woman began to slide the pulled up robe down her legs again. She blushed lightly when Vergil crouched in order to recover the panties that had been discarded some minutes ago. He gave them back to her in a gallant gesture that contrasted with the action itself. The woman offered him a small, embarrassed smile that made her expression look a lot younger, even if Vergil had the suspicion that she was indeed several years older than him.

Again, it was not as if he was particularly interested in such an information.

After that, Vergil dedicated a short nod to the woman and pulled away from her, determined to leave before having to deal with the awkwardness that would inevitably appear.

He wasn’t fast enough though, and he had merely taken a couple of steps towards the main street when the woman talked, with a voice that sounded breathless but also satisfied. 

“You didn’t tell me your name.”

Vergil stopped, looked at the woman over his shoulder, and offered a small smirk to her.

“You did not mention yours either.”

The woman’s intense blue eyes, the only characteristic of her that Vergil would (perhaps) remember, opened more before she exhaled a soft chuckle.

“Fair enough, stranger”, she bowed her head a little towards him in a gesture that managed to look solemn despite the fact that a moment ago she was blaspheming with him being buried in her, “perhaps we will cross paths again.”

Vergil nodded briefly, but when he turned around to finally leave he did not look back, knowing that they both knew such a statement was a complete lie.

* * *

**_June 10 - 3:34 p.m. (present day)_ **

_“Next station: Pitchbale. Please, make sure not to forget your belongings and be careful when stepping down to the platform.”_

V woke up startled when hearing the announcement, realizing then he had fallen asleep during the trip. The invoker massaged his temple with his eyes closed, ignoring the murmur of the continuous conversations of the passengers who had arrived to their destination and were moving around in order to retrieve their things.

He didn’t know why he had had such a dream, or more accurately, why he had revived such a memory that up till then had been lost in his subconscious. After all, during the time Vergil had spent in Fortuna investigating the Order of the Sword, he had ‘fooled around’ so to speak in several occasions, so the fact that V’s mind had decided to bring up such a particular encounter was something that escaped his understanding.

At that moment Nero snored next to him, which made V look towards him in the instant that the boy’s eyes snapped opened.

“We’ve arrived already?”, Nero inquired with a half-sleepy voice, looking around when seeing movement.

“No, we are still in Pitchbale.”

Nero groaned in annoyance, dropping back against his seat while crossing his arms, displaying an expression that was about to cross the line between looking frustrated and childish.

“Fuck, it’s taking centuries to come back to Red Grave.”

V had to agree. Eventually, the previous day they had managed to reach the closest city to the swamp before nightfall. The problem had been that several trains had been cancelled due to demons beginning to attack again, so they had been forced to pick a slower train that carried out stops in absolutely all the villages around. They had spent the full night travelling, and they still had some hours until finally reaching their destination.

“Wait, Pitchbale?”, Nero said after a while, looking at V with a teasing expression, “it’s a pity we can’t leave the train. You could say hello to your ex.”

V clicked his tongue, leaning his elbow on the window to rest his cheek on his fist.

“I hardly doubt I can consider Zaira as an ex. As I said, we barely intimated thanks to certain _someone_.”

V wasn’t expecting that Nero’s reaction was to tense instead of snorting, as usual. The invoker raised a questioning eyebrow, and was about to ask what was wrong when Nero talked.

“But you intimated enough to begin calling her for her first name.”

V blinked slowly, a smirk slowly forming on his face.

“So Griffon was right that day.”

Nero frowned in alert.

“Right about what?”

“About you being jealous.”

“ _What_? I wasn’t!”

“Yes, you indeed were.”

“I tell you I was _not_.”

“Are you sure?”

“Fucking damn sure. That chicken had no idea what he was talking about.”

“Then why are you blushing?”

“I’m NOT.”

“Nero, I am right in front of you: you are clearly blushing.”

" _V_..."

"Not to mention that _you_ are the prime culprit of this situation for bringing up the topic of _Zaira_."

“God, I hate you.”

Nero’s last statement was utterly destroyed with the way Nero kissed him deeply to silence his amused chuckles, and by when the train continued its course V’s dream had been completely forgotten, buried in his memory once again because, apparently, Nero had the ability of making the process of thinking difficult when his mouth was against his like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's not necessary to explain that the woman of this chapter is Nero's mother :P
> 
> I haven't wanted to give many details about her because in case there is a DMC6 in a future and they dare to explore this character, I would like that this AU could somehow still fit in the canon :P
> 
> However, Saya and I have a theory about Nero's mother being an Angel, and that's the reason why I have written her being a little mysterious and also running from something :P 
> 
> We are closer to the end of this first part! Next chapter will be longer once again (I think so at least xD) with the boys being finally in Red Grave :)


	27. (June 11) - Countdown (NSFW)

**_June 11 - 0:12 a.m._ **

Once the creaking door of Devil May Cry was opened, V reached for the switch to turn the lights on to illuminate the whole office. V felt glad again for having gone to Morrison directly, since the old man had wisely invested the money of the job in paying Dante’s pending bills, instead of stupidly wasting it as his brother would have surely done.

“Well, here we are again”, Nero said a joking but also relieved tone after closing the door behind V and his familiars, “shit, I’m not going to take another train in what remains of the fucking year.”

V threw a reproachful look at Nero when the devil hunter carelessly dropped the backpack on the dusty floor.

“Nero, as much as I agree with your statement, I would appreciate you do not take it on our belongings.”

V rolled his eyes when Griffon chuckled to himself and muttered a low ‘ _He said ‘our’_ ’ that was supposed to be for Shadow’s ears only, but that the invoker could perfectly heard. He pretended not having noticed it though, since it wasn’t the first time that his familiars reacted exaggeratedly when Nero and him ‘acted as a couple’.

He reached for the bag and approached Dante’s desk while Griffon and Shadow explored the place with curiosity. V had visited the office several times after hiring Dante but his familiars had never been inside, since V had preferred that his brother didn’t know much about his new skills. The possibility of being forced to fight against the legendary devil hunter was always there after all. It had been like that since Vergil and Dante were children, and _that_ would never change until one of them ended dead.

V’s contradictory feelings about that irremediable reality were put on hold when he heard Nero huff. The devil hunter was next to the round table situated close to the sofa. The boy had made the mistake of opening an old box of pizza that was so sticky seemed to be glued to the table, and was waving his hand horizontally over it in a useless attempt of remove the bad smell of rotten food that had come from it.

“Nope, _this_ is not edible.”

“And did you really need to open it to figure that out?”

Nero ignored his comment and grabbed the carton while wrinkling his nose. The devil hunter kept it as far as he could from his body before discarding it inside the trash can inside the room. While Nero cleaned a little the table, V extracted all the elements they had gathered. V carefully extracted the fixed page of the manuscript and left it on the desk surface, leaving everything ready to reveal that page content first thing in the morning.

“Damn, I hope you don’t call me disorganized again”, Nero said, approaching the desk while cleaning his hands on his jeans, “he is worse than me.”

V suppressed in time the urge of saying he was in fact aware of such a fact when Nero reached for the phone and marked a number.

“Who are you calling?”

“Dinner”, V raised a questioning eyebrow as Nero approached the handset to his ear, “it’s been weeks since I ate a proper pizza. And don’t put that face: you’ll like it—Hey, good evening! Listen, do you still do delivery?...Okay, okay, chill out! I get it: you’re scared of those monsters, yeah, but what if I go instead?”

V exhaled a resigned sigh and left Nero in charge of the dinner which, despite Nero’s optimism, he doubted he would be able to enjoy since he had never been a fan of greasy food. V climbed up the stairs in direction of the bathroom, taking a glimpse of Shadow lying on the bed he and Nero would be using later, with Griffon perched on the headboard. The invoker thought it wouldn’t hurt to let them be in the open a little more and entered the small bathroom, closing the door behind him.

After undressing completely, gloves and accessories included, V entered the shower that needed an urgent reformation. He made the mistake of activating the water when he was already inside the cubicle, which forced him to press himself against the tiles to avoid the cold water as much as possible until it _finally_ turned acceptably warm.

He had barely begun shampooing his hair with both hands when two fast knocks sounded at the other side of the door.

“V, I’m gonna pick up the dinner now. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes or so, okay?”

“Alright. Be careful.”

A sudden silence followed his answer, and then the door opened. V frowned, opening his closed eyes in time to see the shower curtain being removed and Nero sneaking his head inside to kiss him with surprising intensity.

V had barely time to return the unexpected kiss when Nero separated with a smile that looked genuinely happy.

“I will.”

The devil hunter’s steps had already faded when V realized that it was the first time he directly expressed his concern for Nero in a way that had come out extremely natural. He clicked his tongue softly, continuing washing himself while innerly thanking that Griffon and Shadow were in the bedroom, because for sure they would have laughed at him _again_ for such an uncharacteristic display of affection.

Twenty minutes later V was finishing dressing with his only spare of clothes, the pajama courtesy of that girl’s mother, when he heard the door of the office opening and Nero loudly announcing his presence. V climbed down the stairs barefoot, suppressing the urge of invoking Shadow again to avoid walking on that floor that needed some cleaning.

He was halfway down the stairs when he pinpointed Nero opening the mini-fridge next to the couch to put a couple of drinks inside.

“Did you get involved in any fights?”, V inquired, his eyes automatically scanning Nero’s body for possible injuries.

“Yeah, a group of empusas. But nothing I couldn’t handle with my eyes closed”, Nero rolled back his shoulders to remove his coat, signaling towards the stairs with his chin, “I’m going to take a quick shower. You can begin eating if you’re hungry.”

V snorted softly, briefly approaching the desk to recover his poetry book.

“I will wait, do not worry”, V sat down on the sofa with his left leg flexed under his right, “after all, I doubt I am going to eat much of _that_ food.”

Ten minutes later Nero was back, and V was forced to admit that the pizza placed on the (cleaner) round table didn’t taste as terribly as he feared. His reluctant confession caused Nero, sitting next to him on the couch, to bark a triumphant laugh.

“I knew you’d have to eat your words.”

Nero reached then for his third portion while V was still for his first half. In order to do so Nero had to give his back to V, allowing this one to appreciate the way the tank top adjusted to the boy’s muscles. Fortunately, by when Nero turned around again V had recovered his imperturbable expression without Nero noticing his ogling stare.

“I hope Dante is okay”, Nero cleared his throat when V looked at him with surprise, “I mean, if that idiot dies, I won’t be able to kick his ass to make him pay.”

V smiled to himself, since the boy’s worry for Dante was quite evident.

“Pay for what? Saving you?”

Nero ‘glared’ at him when hearing his ironic question, but the sigh the boy exhaled next showed that the devil hunter had long admitted to himself such a reality, even if it still bothered him.

“Nah. For calling me ‘deadweight’”, Nero emphatically pointed at V with his half-eaten pizza portion before leaving it resting on the box, “and also for telling you that bullshit of not having defeated him.”

V chuckled to himself, following Nero’s movements with his eyes as this one stood up to approach the jukebox placed next to the opposite sofa. The devil hunter pressed one of the buttons three of four times, getting visibly impatient when its red light illuminated but no music was reproduced. Eventually, Nero decided to ‘fix it’ by kicking the device, effectively making it [sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onwIcZt0-g4) with a song that was too strident to V’s liking.

“Could you choose another song?”

Nero, who was rhythmically hitting the floor with his feet enjoying the music, sighed with impatience and proceeded to select another song. The moment V saw the smile appearing in Nero’s face, he knew for certain the devil hunter had picked something that he would like even less.

His suspicions were confirmed when a new [song](https://youtu.be/bE0MhMFmaWY?t=13) invaded the room, the first verses being enough for V make a pained grimace for the sickly sweet lyrics.

“What on earth is _that_?”

V was pretty sure that the murdering glance he was throwing at Nero was everything but funny, though no one would say it for the way Nero had burst out laughing.

“Nero, stop that _right now._ ”

“Wait, so you don’t like it?”

Apparently, Nero was enjoying his second-hand embarrassment too much to change the song, so with a click of tongue V left his pizza portion on the table and stood up as well to join Nero, who was finally calming himself.

“What a pity. I was about to ask you for a dance.”

“Over my dead body.”

V’s cutting answer provoked another fit of laughter from Nero. The invoker had to go through practically all the songs until coming across one which he could at least [tolerate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIBnlnfsS0k). Still, when they both returned to the sofa, he had to stand Nero’s teasing about his ‘lack of taste in music’, something that V could easily counterattack by pointing out that someone who had been raised and educated in Fortuna could not know much about the matter.

He mentioned the topic by passing, so he wasn’t expecting the way Nero suddenly gulped, as if the boy was holding back to ask something.

It wasn’t the first time he noticed such an expression in Nero, and although for the time being the boy had held back his obvious need of answers, V knew that it was just a matter of time that the devil hunter’s curiosity couldn’t be contained anymore. But again, V planned to postpone that moment until he was truly ready to share the whole truth, while ignoring that inner voice telling him that that day began to be scarily close.

“About Fortuna, you said you were there once, right?”

V nodded, for now not feeling very threatened by the question.

“Yes, several years ago”, the dream he had some hours ago came to him, “it was quite an entertained experience.”

Nero nodded, tilting his head a little.

“And when did you go? Because I mean, Fortuna isn’t too big, you know? So, I find weird we didn’t cross paths at least once.”

V looked at Nero without changing the expression for a long second. If his memory didn’t fail him, Nero had commented he had twenty-four, which meant that by when Vergil visited the place the boy probably hadn’t even born yet.

“Perhaps”, he lied, deciding that saying the truth would raise too many unwanted questions, “though I didn’t stay much, and the places I visited weren’t very...open, so to speak.”

V stood up again to walk towards the mini-fridge, partly to extract the two beers that Nero had put there but also to lower the chances of Nero noticing he was hiding things. He handled the bottle to Nero, who used his mechanical hand to open his own and also V’s one when seeing this one was having difficulties to do so.

When returning the bottle to V, the devil hunter was smiling with amusement, which made V frown with curiosity.

“What?”

Nero shook his beer slightly.

“Do you want a rematch at that drinking game?”

V huffed, taking a small sip.

“No, thank you”, V averted his eyes towards the ground, lost in his thoughts, “I do not have particularly good memories about that night.”

Nero snorted softly, taking a longer sip while crossing his legs under his body.

“Yeah, it ended being tense as fuck”, after a small pause, Nero talked again with hesitation, “hey, can I ask you something?”

V looked at Nero with patience.

“Nero, you can ask whatever you feel like, since I will decide if I answer or not.”

Nero chuckled.

“Fair enough”, Nero passed the hand that wasn’t sustaining his beer through his head and looked at V with a mix of hesitation and curiosity, “when did you realize that you…”

V deadpanned at Nero when this one didn’t complete the sentence.

“I’m afraid that you’ll have to be a little more specific. You may not have a too complicated mind, but reading someone’s thoughts isn’t something I can do yet—”

“That you loved me.”

Nero purposely snapping those words made V’s eyes open wide. Hearing the boy put those words in his mouth when he hadn’t said them directly yet was quite strange, but not inaccurate, so V suppressed the urge of clearing his throat awkwardly before looking at Nero defensively.

“You say it first.”

V realized that such a sentence sounded better in his head, since once spelled it came out quite childish, which surely was the reason why Nero chuckled with surprise.

“Okay”, Nero remained silent for several seconds, his eyes looking in front of him without seeing in a pensive expression that didn’t suit him at all but that didn’t look too bad on him, “shit, it’s difficult to say the exact moment, but well, I think I realized when you went to kill that demon on your own. Although at that time I didn’t know what was happening because well, you know…”

“You were with that insufferable woman; yes, indeed I know.”

Nero sighed, looking at him with a resigned smile when contempt tinged his word and he didn’t make the slightest attempt to hide it.

“There isn’t any chance that someday you get along with Kyrie, huh?”

V blinked all the slowly he could.

“Yes. Perhaps when the Underworld becomes a nice holidays destination. Or when the sun begins rising at night. Or…”

“Okay, okay, jeez, you could simply say ‘no’”, Nero took a sip of his drink and signaled at V with it, “but don’t avoid the question. It’s your turn now.”

V tilted his head, pretending being confused.

“I don't recall saying I was going to answer”, the outraged expression Nero showed compensated for the teasing suffered before, which eventually convinced V to answer, “since the festival.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide.

“Really? I thought it was later.”

V frowned while half-closing his eyes, already fearing the answer.

“And by ‘later’ you mean...?”

“In that temple in the mountain. When you kissed me”, V pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed, his exasperation so palpable that Nero talked next with a defensive tone, “what? It wasn’t as if you gave any hints about it sooner!”

V shook his head in defeat, opening his eyes again to look at Nero with patience.

“I believed that it would be difficult to find someone denser than Dante, but it is evident I was mistaken.”

Instead of feeling bothered, as V planned Nero would feel, the devil hunter sounded quite serious when talking again after a small pause.

“You...did you know Dante from before?”

V nodded, and since he was busy putting his poetry book safe and away from the food, he didn’t notice the way Nero was looking at him inquisitively.

“Yes. I was involved with him once.”

Needless to say, V didn’t even think about explaining that such incident turned to be so complicated that it developed into Vergil’s downfall and, ultimately, in his current existence.

“That’s why you hired him?”, Nero insisted, and V nodded again.

“As annoying as Dante is, his ability in combat is quite outstanding. I would dare to say that it has almost no rival, with very particular exceptions”, V remembered then the panic he felt when Dante was so easily defeated by his other half, since for a moment he felt everything was lost, and that he could never find a better candidate, “sadly, with Urizen it wasn’t enough.”

During the next silence that fell, V thought it would be wise to change the subject because talking about Dante was the easiest way to say something he shouldn’t. He was still thinking a subtle way to bring another topic when Nero shifted his body to leave the beer on the window ledge behind the sofa with a brusqueness V wasn’t expecting to witness.

“Well, seeing how much you admire him, it’s a pity he couldn’t travel with you, huh?”

V stared at Nero in utter disbelief when detecting something he _definitely_ wasn’t expecting to hear in Nero’s tone. Speechless, he silently observed at the devil hunter as this one attacked a new portion of pizza with excessive avidity, as if he was trying to improve his worsened mood by eating.

“What?”, Nero snapped after noticing V looking at him.

By then, V was having great difficulties to suppress the urge of chuckling because the mere idea of Nero being jealous of _Dante_ was too preposterous not to react to it. In fact, he was so shocked by it that he forgot to deny Nero’s claim about him admiring Dante, something that Vergil would have _never_ admitted to himself, and even less aloud.

“Nothing. You are quite right indeed. Surely Dante’s abilities would have been helpful in case of taking your place.”

V casually leaned his elbow on the couch arm to tap his fingers on it, doubting for a moment about playing that card. However, when seeing Nero in alert and mindful of each one of his words, he decided that he was looking forward to whatever his words could bring.

“Not to mention that his experience would have come in handy in certain...ambits.”

He wasn’t entirely sure if Nero would get the second meaning of that last sentence, but when Nero clenched his jaw while half-closing his eyes at him, V had to suppress a triumphant smirk, detecting Nero’s competitiveness as if it was something physical.

“Yeah?”, Nero dropped his portion on the plastic carton again to settle his human arm on the back of the sofa, leaning forward towards V until being invading his personal space, “in what ambits, V?”

They were close enough so that V felt Nero’s lightly accelerated breathing against his own, but despite the need of closing the distance he didn’t move, continuing talking in a conversational tone that made Nero’s eyes shine dangerously.

“Fighting. Strategy. Sex”, the fact that V spelled the three of them without changing the tone provoked an even bigger effect on Nero, who gritted his teeth when he added a patronizing tone to his next words, “but worry not, Nero. Experience is not everything. And in certain occasions having an unskilled partner has its certain appeal—”

His sentence was interrupted by Nero’s angry, intrusive tongue forcing his way inside his mouth, causing his whole body to shiver in anticipation.

V had barely time to think that Nero being so easily manipulated could be as good as it was scary when Nero broke the kiss, grabbed his wrist and without spelling a single word dragged him upstairs.

For a moment V wasn’t completely sure if Nero wanted a proper fight or to resolve his differences in bed. The second hypothesis soon proved to be the correct one when Nero snapped the door of the bedroom opened, unceremoniously pushed him towards the bed making it bounce slightly, and crawled on the top of him to kiss him senseless again.

“I’m gonna make you eat those words too, V.”

Nero’s threatening promise caused V to bite his lower lip not to moan an eager ‘ _Yes_ ’.

V felt his member straining against his pajama pants when Nero adopted a kneeling position to drag his tank top out of his body in a fluid motion. He was about to try to sit up to lick a wet pattern up Nero’s muscled front when the devil hunter hovered over him to snarl the next words directly in his ear, his hands fumbling down with V’s pajama pants to begin removing them with urgency.

“In ten minutes, you’re gonna be fucking moaning this ‘unskilled partner’ name.”

V did it in five.

* * *

Nero felt pride spreading inside when V’s back arched from the rattling bed while gasping loudly, proving he had found the invoker’s prostate way sooner than the other times. He pistoned his hips without changing the angle to keep rocking their naked, joined bodies together, grunting against the side of V’s face when the invoker stopped clutching at the pillow to hook his arms around his back instead.

The bed was banging against the wall so hard with each one of his slams that the only picture hanging from the wall was threating to fall, and although Nero wouldn’t mind to keep going like that until reaching his orgasm, with V’s arms enclosed around him and his lean body shivering and pressing against his own, he decided to try something else.

Something the bastard deserved after making him stupidly jealous on purpose before.

Without warning, Nero stopped his thrusts and straightened his position to pull away from V’s embrace, looking at him from above with a wild smirk. The interruption of the rhythm caused V to show a heated expression of stupor that developed into a threatening one, his eyes showing he wanted Nero to continue making him come undone without delay.

Nero didn’t feel the least scared for the anger shining in V’s green eyes, since it turned soon into arousal when Nero grabbed V’s hands to slam them above the invoker’s head and against the mattress in a smooth, violent gesture. Nero resumed the rock of his hips again, dragging a keening, aroused groan out of V’s parted lips followed by a blissed exhale of his name that made Nero grunt in return.

There was something Nero had correctly guessed when fucking V, and it was that the invoker had loved to be pinned. The way V had powerfully clenched around him when he had restrained his wrists during their first time, practically begging for more as he fucked into him again and again, had been a loud hint of V secretly wanting that kind of manhandling.

And damn, it drove Nero _wild_. V, who always wanted control, was able to renounce to it for _him_ , squirming and groaning his name with such pleasure that Nero found himself doing the same just as needily.

“Damn it, V”, Nero warned against V’s cheek, erratically pounding inside the invoker when the heat in his lower stomach was too intense to keep a decent pace, “fuck, I’m so close.”

Despite looking quite wrecked, and despite being the one caged against the bed, V managed to look the one in command when looking at him with a challenging grin.

“Already?”

The tone V used, amused with a hint of fake disappointment, made Nero stop to stare at the smirking invoker wide-eyed. He knew V was playing with him again, and that the invoker was only trying to make him react _again_ , but he had never been the type to think rationally. The type _not_ to fall for such an obvious trick. He had done it before when the man had purposely teased him with Dante, and he was going to do it again while enjoying every second of it.

With a curse, Nero passed to restrain both of V’s wrists with his mechanical hand in order to set his left hand free to enclose it around the invoker’s member. He resumed his fucking at the same time, making V shiver against his body.

“Yeah, but you fucking go first”, Nero snarled against his ear.

He bit the side of V’s neck violently, which only seemed to excite the invoker more because this one chuckled again, this time breathlessly.

“You are _so_ easy to manipulate, Ner— _ahn!_ ”

The devil hunter destroyed V’s remark by roughening the pace, punching out a string of loud, unabashed groans from V that Nero enjoyed as much as any poetry V could have recited up till then.

“You were saying, V?”, Nero inquired with a toothy smirk, licking the mark forming on V’s neck while increasing the rhythmic jerk of his hips and the force of his strokes. The strings of the bed were crying for the abuse of Nero fucking V with zero reservations. And damn, V seemed to be enjoying it deeply, his previous teasing forgotten for the sake of urging Nero to keep going, to not daring to stop, and Nero gladly fulfilled V’s encouragements until the very end.

Despite Nero's efforts to make V come first, the orgasm hit them both at the same time. Nero was with his eyes closed and his face buried in V’s neck when his body erratically spasmed, in the precise moment in which he detected an unexpected source of power which was followed by a heavy impact outside the building.

Nero immediately looked towards the origin of the noise, frowning in alert.

“V, did you hear that—?”

Nero stopped talking when focusing his attention on V, his mouth hanging slack when seeing V lying under him, his sweaty body looking completely tattooless and his messed hair almost mingling with the white covers.

The invoker was still recovering his breath after reaching his peak, letting out shaky inhales with his eyes closed in an expression that looked fucked out and blissed. As Nero was assimilating what had just happened, the invoker finally forced his eyes opened to look up at Nero in confusion, clearly not understanding his stupor.

“What?”

Nero didn’t need to answer. At that moment a familiar growl sounded outside, followed by an annoyed and also recognizable caw that caused V’s eyes open wide in shock.

 

“ _Why the hell did V invoke the three of us? This street is totally deserted!_ ”, a cavernous noise followed Griffon’s protest outside, “ _sorry, big guy: it seems that our owner is an idiot and made us appear for no reason._ ”

 

By then, Nero could barely suppress his laughter while observing how V covered his eyes with his now liberated right hand in mortification, uselessly trying to hide his embarrassment.

“So…”

“Not a word.”

“...despite being soo inexperienced…”

“I’ve said _not_ a word.”

“...the sex was _so good_ that you accidentally invoked your pets when coming?”

“ _Nero…_ ”

“Well, _that_ ’s what I call an ego boost, huh?”

Nero laughed when V removed the hand from his eyes to glare at him. The invoker turned his face to the side when he lowered his head, rejecting the kiss, but that didn’t dissuade Nero from keeping trying between laughs. He eventually caught V’s wrists again and, after pressing them on the pillow on either side of V’s head, he captured V’s mouth in a heated kiss that the invoker didn’t have any option to end returning.

He hissed when V forcibly bit at his lower lip, making it bleed as a punishment for his previous mocking. V licking his lips to taste his blood was quite a sexy sight though, and Nero thought that having a bruised lip was a cheap price to pay to see it.

At that moment they heard V’s familiars outside again and the invoker rapidly snapped his fingers to invoke all of them back.

“Poor guys”, Nero teased, finally pulling out from V as this one’s tattoos slowly appeared again, “I bet they were looking forward for a nice fight.”

“Keep mentioning the incident and their wish will be fulfilled extremely soon.”

V’s threat lost almost all its effect, since the invoker sounded quite exhausted but content. Nero put his boxers on again and made a quick visit to the bathroom to discard the condom and also retrieve some toilet tissues. The trip couldn’t last more than half a minute, but by when he returned to the main bedroom V was already falling into a deep sleep. Carefully, Nero cleaned the remains of the man’s release from his stomach, covered V with the sheets, and was about to enter the bed behind him after removing his mechanical arm when he heard the office phone ringing.

Nero left the bed in quite a hurry and rapidly climbed down the stairs, wanting to stop the noisy device before V could be woken up because of it. When the old phone was about to sound for the fourth time, Nero picked up the call and answered with a mocking ‘ _Devil May Cry_ ’ that pretended to mimic Dante’s greeting, since he had heard it in some occasions that he had needed to call the old man for reluctant advice.

Morrison laughed at the other side, so Nero thought that his imitation had been quite good. After expressing his relief for them being safe, Morrison told him that he had heard the rumors of the army intervening in a couple of days.

“The situation is that bad?”, Nero inquired, leaning against the desk with a frown, “I mean, sure, there were some demons when V and I came here, but way less than we were expecting to find.”

“ _The thing is that those creatures are cleverer than they look, and they have apparently learnt that people avoid the streets at night so they focus their attacks during the daylight._ ”

Nero exhaled a sigh and nodded to himself.

“Okay, we’ll have that in mind. Thanks, old man.”

He was about to hang up when Morrison mentioned the topic he had wanted to avoid.

“ _Oh, by the way, about that improvised trip to Fortuna…_ ”

Nero let his head fall back a little with his eyes closed.

“I know, I know: I owe you for it _and_ the extra vehicle Lucia had to rent, she already told me.”

Morrison laughed at the other side.

“ _Atta boy. I’m glad you are more reliable than Dante_ ”, Morrison’s tone turned more serious when talking again, “ _did you manage to let everything settled there?_ ”

Nero gulped, remembering his last meeting with Kyrie.

He felt very happy with how things were between V and him. It was true that he sometimes felt curious against his will about all those things V refused to share, but when he told the invoker that he didn’t mind about his past he was being sincere. He only cared about the present, and also about what the future would bring after defeating that bastard.

However, even if he knew that he had done the correct thing by leaving Kyrie, part of him still felt guilty for not having done everything differently. Sooner. Better.

“Yeah, I did”, he eventually said, not feeling like giving any more details, and feeling thankful when Morrison didn’t ask him further either.

After hanging up, Nero came back to the room by yawning since it was past 1:45 a.m. by then. He tried to join V in the bed as quietly as possible, but their previous activities seemed to have ruined the strings permanently and the piece of furniture creaked noisily when he entered it. Fortunately, V didn’t wake up, not even when Nero enclosed his human arm around his thin frame, spooning him to also fall into a deserved long sleep.

* * *

The next morning V woke up tired, something that surprised him because, since beginning his relationship with Nero, he had been able to enjoy from full nights of peaceful sleep that allowed him to wake up feeling quite refreshed.

However, that day the sensation coiling in his stomach was similar to the one he always experienced after a night full of nightmares, with the difference that, this time, he had no memory of what he had dreamed.

At least, Nero waking up next to him, protesting because V had managed to keep the whole sheet for himself _again,_ helped to dispel that oppressive feeling he had managed to forget up till then. Also, the almost mandatory morning make-out session always worked as a nice mind-clearing, and that afternoon its usual effect was potentiated after Nero made the most of having a proper bed to their free disposition in order to get him off with his mouth.

Like the night before V came with a broken version of Nero’s name in his half-parted lips, his hips unconsciously jerking against Nero’s pliant mouth as this one swallowed the last drop of his release.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep again”, Nero teased after cleaning his mouth with the back of his hand.

V’s eyes, which had ended shut closed after powerfully climaxing, opened again to offer a half-hearted glare at Nero.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t drained my energy, that task would be easier to do.”

He was blaming Nero out of habit though, since he hadn’t made any attempt to stop the boy when this one began to lick down his body with an obvious intent. The same way, he hadn’t been particularly thorough to persuade Nero against taking his member in his mouth, and perhaps his fingers hooking on Nero’s head while his hips rocked against Nero’s parted lips had encouraged the devil hunter to continue rather than to stop.

While Nero disappeared out of the room, V took a warm shower. He borrowed a bathrobe that had to belong to either Trish or Lady, since it fitted him too well to be Dante’s, and then joined Nero’s downstairs, finding the boy in a still half-naked state while preparing breakfast.

“Wow, you won the lottery with this kid”, Griffon commented then, manifesting with Shadow when V sat at the table, “he is such a good housemaid.”

The so-called housemaid threw a burned pancake to Griffon that this one avoided with a mocking laugh, causing the food to impact against the office wall.

While having breakfast Nero mentioned that Morrison had called the previous night, commenting that apparently demons went rampant at that hour of the day.

“Probably Urizen is the one to blame for it.”

V took a sip of his coffee while placing the palm of his other hand on the side of his abused neck, covered in dark hickeys product of Nero’s excessive eagerness. Not that he could complain much about it, since there was a recent mark of his teeth on the top of Nero’s pectorals, a new proof that he was the main culprit of that morning’s session.

The boy leaned his back against his chair with his arms crossed, the impatient sigh Nero exhaled allowing V to focus on his face instead of on his exposed, taut skin.

“I guess that we cannot face that bastard until we read that manuscript.”

“No, we cannot”, V confirmed, smiling to himself when Nero’s hopeful expression vanished, “unless you want to be called ‘deadweight’ again.”

Nero lazily showed V his middle finger as his familiars laughed at the boy.

“Okay, then I will be training a little while you finish.”

“Hey, you could fight there together!”, Griffon suddenly said with a playful tone, “to remember your first lovers fight.”

It took V and Nero a moment to understand what Griffon meant.

“Shit, I had almost forgotten about that day”, Nero barked a laugh, looking at V with amusement, “you were so fucking angry when I called you anemic.”

V half-closed his eyes at Nero when his comment made his familiars laugh this time at him.

“Yes, but as far as I know this ‘anemic’ keeps...how do you like to say it? Oh, yes: ‘wiping the floor with your ass’ in each encounter.”

Nero’s eyes glinted when V clearly won that verbal assault, gaining even louder laughs from the familiars.

“It’s decided then: when we defeat Urizen, we are having a fight to decide once and for all who is better.”

V didn’t say anything to accept or reject such a proposal. He barely registered Nero kissing briefly the side of his temple when passing by his side, being focused on stopping his thoughts from wandering again about what would happen or not after finally recovering his original form.

During the following hour and half, V worked on the liquid formula that would allow to reveal the hidden page, while occasionally hearing Nero’s shouts, product of his training, coming from the alley situated in the back of the office.

When V had finished coating the page with the liquid he had elaborated, he softly blew over it to dry it a little and let it rest on the desk. All what remained then was to wait until the dissolution took effect.

After dressing again with his usual clothes V recovered his poetry book and cane, and joined Nero in the back alley.

“You can stop showing off: your t-shirt and sweater are dried already.”

Nero snorted when hearing his lightly reproachful tone, signaling with his chin at him.

“Says the man that walks around half-naked on a common basis.”

V was opening his mouth to protest when he saw the look that his familiars were throwing at him and he decided to accept the critic with dignity by raising softly his hand. Once inside, he was considering the possibility of taking a short nap when Nero began to talk with a light hesitant tone.

“Hey, do you think we can take a look at the area where that bastard appeared? Just to check if some of the guys managed to leave it.”

V evaluated Nero’s proposal and eventually nodded.

“Very well”, the devil hunter was about to hurriedly climb the stairs, as if he was afraid of V changing his mind, but V stopped him by setting the top of his cane on Nero’s naked shoulder, “ _but_ we are merely going to look, understood?”

Nero nodded immediately, so quickly that V didn’t end very convinced about the devil hunter’s good predisposition. However, when they reached the place where that demonic cocoon had arisen from the ground almost a month ago, the devil hunter only gritted his teeth with his hand settled on his sword in a merely defensive posture.

They explored the surroundings in search of openings that hinted that Dante, Trish or Lady had managed to leave that organic prison, but they didn’t find any. Only destruction had been left behind, and although the bodies of the people who had died as a result of those roots attacking had been taken care of, the blood stains in the ground still persisted. As a reminder of what happened a month ago, and about what would happen again if they weren't fast enough to end it in time.

“We should go back.”

V was expecting some resistance, so he raised an impressed eyebrow when Nero nodded in defeat and followed him.

“Stop looking so damn surprised. I promised I would only observe, didn't I?”

V hinted an amused grin when Nero sounded offended for his lack of trust.

“Yes, you did. My apologies: I will not doubt your word ever again.”

Nero rolled his eyes for his ironic remark, bumping his shoulder softly against V’s one in reproach.

“But it’s weird, don’t you think?”, Nero commented suddenly, looking around with a frown that made V do the same.

“What do you mean?”

“Morrison said last night that demons prowled during the day, right? But we haven’t found a single one of them—”

Nero hadn’t finished speaking when V heard the unmistakable sound of a blade being dragged along the ground.

Without him having to snap his fingers, Griffon manifested and grabbed his wrist in order to push him out of the way of the antenora’s weapon, preventing him from receiving a hit that could have been extremely critical.

“ _Shit_. Why the hell did I say anything?”, Nero cursed, extracting his sword while shooting non-stop at the demon.

“Totally agree, kid: what you said was a total death flag!”

By when Griffon dropped V on the ground Nero was already getting the upper hand against the demon. The invoker missed how the devil hunter finished the demon off though, his eyes focused on the large groups of demons merely composed by cainas and antenoras coming from the perpendicular streets with the goal of surrounding them.

While Nero reloaded his gun, V also invoked Shadow while extracting his poetry book. V was still looking for the best verses to potentiate his familiars to finish that battle as quickly as possible when, at the same time, all the demons ignored Nero in order to lunge against him.

Neither of them was expecting such an outcome, since lesser demons never followed any kind of strategy in battle and were driven by a rather simple, predictable rule: to focus on the closest target, often ignoring how strong their opponent could be.

However, what was happening then was different. Those demons were following a different pattern, going as far as receiving Nero’s attacks without trying to avoid them or strike back, as if their own survival instinct had been annulled and replaced by the imperious necessity of attacking V and V alone.

“Fuck, what’s gotten into them?!”, Nero exclaimed, frustrated because taunting them seemed to be useless and he was unable to attract their attention on himself in order to make the battle more balanced.

V was too busy commanding his familiars while Griffon didn't stop transporting him from one side to the other, so he could not talk to Nero to explain his theory: that because of their proximity Urizen had detected him, his other half, and had decided that his presence had to be erased.

Griffon cawed in distress when the next attack of an antenora came way too close, forcing him to change directions too brusquely. V clicked his tongue, and after harshly digging his cane in a fallen antenora that was writhing on the ground as a result of one of Shadow’s deathly attacks, he decided he had had enough of that situation.

“Nero, keep your distance.”

The devil hunter finished to shoot with his arm at a caina and looked at him, understanding what V was going to do because he stepped backwards after nodding. Griffon left him on the furthest side, and when his familiars’ combined attacks managed to force the demons to group together, V raised his arm in horizontal. That time, Nightmare decided to manifest in his meteor form, impacting against the ground in the middle of the group to wipe them off in one efficient blow.

“ _HAH!_ Take that!”

V found himself showing an amused smile, since it was probably the first time that Griffon _and_ Nero let out the exact same exclamation, which caused them to look at each other in stupor. Meanwhile, Nightmare exhaled a rumbling growl that sounded a little happy for finally being able to participate in a battle before finally vanishing, allowing V to recover his usual black hair.

After exhaling a relieved sigh, the invoker returned his book to the inside pocket of his coat and proceeded to approach Nero to continue their way back to the office.

V never completed that action.

All of a sudden, his legs stopped obeying and he fell forward, as if his energy had decided to abandon him without any previous warning. V was forced to release the cane so that his hands prevented him from ending face down on the ground, and that’s the moment he realized he hadn’t actually heard the stick making contact with the ground. He couldn’t hear _anything_ but a disturbing ringing in his ears, that was soon accompanied by a pressure in his head that surpassed any migraine he could have experienced in the past.

The pain was so piercing that his vision began to darken more and more until V felt himself falling to one of his sides, the last threads of strength finally slipping from his body.

A blurry moving stain that he guessed it was Nero accompanied by his familiars was the last thing V registered before collapsing, as a scary thought managed to slip in his mind:

Finally, the countdown had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, the idea of V invoking his familiars for climaxing is not mine: I read it in a V/male!OC fic some time ago but right now I can't remember what its title was, so if anyone has read it and knows what it is please tell me to indicate it here :)
> 
> And second...sorry about the cliffhanger ^^U But everything was going so well that something angsty had to happen... 
> 
> Just three chapters remain! One of them being quite short since it will be the epilogue prior to the canon game, so to the ones who are _still_ reading this monstrous fic, stay tuned for the ending! :)


	28. (June 12) - No more waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, after so much ~~plot-needed~~ smut, it was time for some light angst to appear again ^^U

**_June 12 - 5:40 p.m._ **

More than 24 hours had passed since V fainted.

Nero had already lost track of how much of that time he had spent sitting on that chair next to the bed, hunched forward with his elbows resting on his knees while tirelessly observing V’s inert figure.

Because of the life Nero he had decided to follow, the devil hunter had been forced to face dangerous situations multiple times, but there had been very few occasions in which he had experienced real, pure fear. In fact, probably the last time he felt as if the world came crashing down went back to his fight against Sanctus, when the bastard made Kyrie appear within the Savior and he was about to accidentally hurt her instead.

However, at that time the panic hadn’t lasted much. The need of doing whatever was necessary to bring Kyrie back had imposed over everything else, without giving him time to actually be scared about the possibility of losing her.

This time it had been different. It had been worse. Because when, all of a sudden, V had passed from being apparently fine to collapse, Nero had _really_ feared the worst for some terrifying seconds. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken him much to find V’s pulse, verifying that the invoker was still alive.

At least, the fact that, somehow, Griffon and Shadow’s had remained behind let Nero know that V’s life wasn’t in imminent danger. He wasn’t an expert in black magic and had never practiced it himself, but he had some basic knowledge about the shared bond between familiars and masters, and therefore he knew that when the master’s vital energy was too debilitated, the familiars tended to be weakened as well.

Both Griffon and Shadow were fine, and not debilitated at all, but that didn’t stop Nero from keeping worrying. Also, it was frustrating not being able to do anything but waiting once again, not to mention that he knew part of the blame for V’s exhaustion fell on him. He had made V invoke Nightmare after all, and it wasn’t as if he had let V fully rest the whole night _and_ morning.

Maybe if he had controlled himself more, if he hadn't got so carried out with V, nothing would have happened. Fuck, the smell of sex was still lingering in the sheets when he had lied V on the bed after carrying him all the way to the office. How the hell V was going to be okay if he drove him to exhaustion every time they slept together? Shit, maybe he should have taken V’s post orgasmic comments more seriously, when the man breathlessly accused him of compensating his lack of reasoning with an enviable stamina.

The devil hunter sighed with exasperation, reclining back against the chair with his arms crossed. Griffon had gone to sweep the area while he and Shadow stayed inside. When noticing his distress, the panther abandoned the feet of the bed to approach him. Nero hinted a small smile when the familiar leaned his head on his knee and growled softly. He patted the animal’s head with his mechanical hand while rubbing his eyes with his gloved one.

He felt rather tired. He had barely slept the previous night, neither eaten anything besides the leftovers of that pizza they ordered, since he had been exclusively focused on paying great attention to any change that could indicate V was waking up. He knew he had to eat though. And he had to call Nico too. He promised he would after coming back, and although the previous day he had told V he was rather curious to see if she had managed to develop more mechanical arms as she promised she’d do, right then he didn’t feel ready to deal with her boisterous personality.

Nero was considering the option of grabbing his weapons and go kill some demons to release some of the pent-up frustration invading him when he heard the already familiar sound of Griffon manifesting in the room. He was surprised when seeing the bird sustaining a bag in his claws that the familiar proceeded to drop on his lap, causing Nero to gasp and make a small grimace when it hit his crotch head-on.

“You better eat that. The last thing we need is that you lose your strength too.”

Nero sighed but complied by opening the bag, extracting a plastic bag of two sandwiches that didn’t look great but not too bad. He hated to admit it, but Griffon had a point. Theoretically only three days remained until Urizen resurrected, and as little as he liked to think about it, with Dante, Lady and Trish out of combat and V in that slumber, maybe at the end he was the only hope to beat Urizen, so falling sick for improperly taking care of himself was the last thing he could allow himself to do.

“Where did you get this?”, Nero inquired, signaling the extracted sandwich as Griffon posed on the bed.

“From a poor woman who had become a human statue”, Nero frowned, not understanding what Griffon meant, “there were a lot of those around the city, as if they had been petrified for some kind of demon.”

“Petrified? But we haven’t found any demons in Red Grave that can do that.”

Griffon moved his wings in a way that could be mimicking a shrug.

“Well, maybe they have learned to do it, because for sure there was demonic power behind it.”

He accepted Griffon’s words without further discussion, because truth was that, as selfish as it sounded, at the moment he didn’t care about those people. There was nothing he could do for them after all. Besides, his worry was exclusively devoted to one single person: the man lying on that bed.

At some point of the afternoon he must have fallen asleep without noticing, since when opening his eyes, it was already dark, Griffon wasn’t in the room, and Shadow was sleeping on the bed at V’s feet.

Nero stood up and rubbed his neck, which felt a little sore for having dozed off in a bad position. He stretched his arms and approached the bed. The invoker hadn’t moved an inch yet, the only thing that indicated he was still alive being his chest rhythmically moving up and down. In fact, it looked as if V was simply enjoying from a long, deserved sleep. As if there wasn’t anything worth worrying about.

But there was something wrong. Nero knew it. He didn’t know what exactly, but the more he thought about it, the more he had the feeling that V’s current state went beyond a simple exhaustion. There was something else that he was missing, and he was convinced that V’s familiars exactly knew what it was.

Initially, he had decided to wait until V woke up, since he was rather sure that the invoker wouldn’t see with good eyes that he asked things about him behind his back. However, that was before V spent a day and half in that coma, and Nero’s patience was running out. He had waited enough already, and he needed answers as vague as they could be.

After touching V’s cheek with the back of his hand and realizing the invoker was a little colder than usual, Nero rearranged the sheets to cover the invoker’s body more. The movement caused Shadow to wake up and raise his head from his front legs to look at Nero questioningly.

“Gonna get some fresh air”, Nero pointed at V with his eyes, “can you warn me if he wakes up?”

Nero took Shadow’s growl as a confirmation and abandoned the room in search of the bird, knowing V was in good hands. He had the feeling the feathered familiar wasn’t inside the office and his intuition led him outside the building.

The moon would turn full in the next days, so the light it emitted was enough to illuminate the deserted street. A quick look was enough to pinpoint Griffon posing on the roof. Nero made use of the old staircase of the adjacent alley to join the familiar. The bird didn’t move from his spot, but detected his presence because began to talk before Nero had reached the top of the building.

“You should go to sleep before collapsing like your boyfriend.”

Nero ignored Griffon’s subtle way of telling him to go and sat down on the roof, one leg flexed and the other hanging from the border.

“Yeah, I’ll go in a bit”, Nero leaned his human arm on his flexed knee and stared in front of him, “after I ask you a couple of things.”

Griffon remained so silent that for a moment Nero thought the bird had come back to V. He turned his head right but Griffon was still there, trying to look imperturbable even if his feathers had fluffed up a bit, indicating his inner tension.

“And I guess those questions are related to V?”

Nero snorted.

“Do you really need to ask? Of course they are.”

“And why don’t you wait until he wakes up to ask him?”

“Because I doubt he’s gonna answer them.”

“In that case I don’t think I should answer them either.”

The definite tone Griffon used had Nero gritting his teeth. Griffon had never talked so seriously, not to him at least, which only served to increase the worry and impatience that he was already experiencing.

“Bullshit. You already told me about his parents and I kept my mouth shut about it, right?”

“This is not the same, kid.”

“Really? Because I don’t see the fucking difference.”

His snarling tone made Griffon give a small startled jump on the roof ledge. Nero realized he was losing his temper too easily and fast, and felt a little guilty for taking his frustration on the bird when clearly the familiar wasn’t the one to blame for V’s state.

He forced himself to take a deep breath before talking again with a tone that, despite being calmer, still sounded a little strained for the effort he was putting not to lose his cool.

“Listen, I get that there are some things... _a bunch_ of things V doesn’t want to talk about. And I get that you are his familiar and you want to respect his wishes, but damn, that way of collapsing isn’t fucking normal”, Nero passed a hand through his head with his eyes closed, “and I don’t need to know _everything_ about V, but fuck, at least I want to know what the hell happened. And why he ended like this. And if he’s really gonna be okay”, Nero looked at the crow, “can you at least tell me that, Griffon?”

Since the whole trip started, it was the first time that Nero called the familiar by his name. Griffon’s eyes opened wide as a result, and when the bird exhaled a long sigh Nero believed for a moment that he had convinced him, and that the familiar was finally going to bring some light to the mystery V’s persona was. But then Griffon shook his head, and Nero’s hopes about such a thing happening were crushed.

“I’m sorry, kid. I really am, but those answers aren’t mine to give. The only thing I can say is that, right now, V is all the fine he can be, and that stopping Urizen is our best chance to fix everything. V included.”

Nero frowned.

“Fix? What the hell do we have to ‘fix’ with V?”

Griffon’s expression showed that the bird had deeply regretted his choice of words, which only convinced Nero that his fears about V’s sate weren’t unfounded.

“Nothing. I didn’t mean —”

“Then _there is_ something wrong with V.”

“No, no, no, no. What I wanted to say was—”

“Does it have something to do with Urizen? Did that bastard do something to V?”, Nero rapidly stood up, anger flooding uncontrolled within him, “because if he’s the fucking reason why V is like that, I’m killing him right NOW.”

The devil hunter didn’t give Griffon time to say anything else before jumping down the street, determined to settle things with that demon once and for all.

He didn’t get to touch the street pavement though, because when his feet were going to land on the ground a dark shadow appeared under him. Several tentacles were born from it to enclose around his body, immobilizing him while keeping him raised some meters above the ground.

Nero cursed and uselessly fought against them before throwing a glare at Shadow when the panther manifested from the ground, offering an expression that was mildly guilty, as if he didn’t feel comfortable using his power against him like that.

“Shadow, put me down NOW”, Nero snapped while Griffon flew towards them, “fuck, you should back me up on this! It’s your damn master the one I want to save! Can’t you fucking see that?!”

“What we see is that you are out of control right now!”, Griffon exclaimed, flapping his wings over him, “you aren’t going to get anything from facing Urizen now but risking your life! You promised V you’d wait until reading that manuscript to act!”

“Yeah, but that was before _you_ admitted he’s in danger!”

“Kid...”

“What the hell I’m supposed to do, huh? To simply stare at him sleep forever without moving a fucking finger?”

“Boy, please, listen before—”

“Because I’m sick of waiting! Last time I let V deal with everything alone, and when he came back he was half dead! So like hell if I’m gonna let the same happen twice!”

“ _Nero_.”

The fact that, this time, it was Griffon the one in using his name made Nero stop struggling against his tentacled chains, even if his heartbeat was still quite accelerated together with his breathing.

“Listen, we know you care about V”, Griffon’s tone sounded sincerely affectionate, which made Nero’s tension recede even more, “and it’s logical you are worried about him, but you have to believe us when Shadow and I say that, right now, V is not in danger, and that going after Urizen will not make him wake up faster. The only thing we’ll get if we face the Demon King in our current state is to get ourselves killed.”

Griffon’s words transported Nero back to that day where everything began for V and him. The familiar had used really similar words to the ones V said back then, when they were mere strangers forced to work together against their will.

At that time V had to prove Nero by force that thoughtless violence wasn’t the solution, but he had changed since then. He was still reckless and impulsive more times than not. He had been like that since he was born, and that would never change. _But_ he had learned the hard way that not all the battles could be won in the short term. Urizen was a clear example of that. So, as much as it frustrated him to wait, it would be even worse to throw all what they had achieved during that month overboard.

V wouldn’t forgive him if he did that, and after all what had taken them to be together, Nero wasn’t going to ruin it because he wasn’t mature enough to accept that, at the moment, there wasn’t anything else he could do.

Probably noticing his body wasn’t struggling against those shadowy vines, Shadow softly deposited Nero on the ground until he was sitting down on it. After the feline’s tentacles came back to his body, Shadow approached and rubbed his head against his shoulder, as if the panther was apologizing for his treatment. Nero patted the panther’s back while his breathing, accelerated for all the shouting, normalized. Meanwhile Griffon posed on the ground at his other side, observing him with his head tilted a little to the side.

“So? Have you pulled your shit together already?”

A short laugh escaped Nero, not having expected Griffon to use such a human expression. He suspected the bird had done it on purpose to lift his spirits, and it had worked

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay”, the bird’s tone turned mocking, “the first thing we’ll tell V when he wakes up is how you behaved as his knight in shining armor, ready to face Urizen to save your love.”

Nero showed Griffon his middle finger with his mechanical hand, but a resigned smile was in his lips when talking again.

“Your owner is a pain in the ass, did you know that?”

Despite the situation, Nero couldn’t help to chuckle when Shadow nodded effusively and Griffon let out an offended caw with his usual loud voice that indicated he indeed was aware of such a statement.

Later that night, while Nero lied next to V and the familiars kept watch, he thought that probably it had been a good idea to follow the familiars’ advice of getting all the rest he could gather. Because he had the feeling that the conversation that would take place if... _when_ V woke up wasn’t going to be an easy one.

* * *

 

_Void._

 

_Darkness._

 

_Emptiness._

 

_As far as his memory reached, those realities had always been a constant in his life._

_Void, the one Vergil faced when he decided to fall from that cliff, indirectly saving a brother who, up till then, he refused to see with anything that wasn’t hate in his eyes._

_Darkness, the one that never abandoned Vergil since the moment he decided to embrace the half that would guarantee his success while refusing to acknowledge the other._

_Emptiness, the one that Vergil was forced to accept within himself as a proof of his resolve, because he feared that in case of daring to fill it, she was devoted to win nevertheless._

_Yes, they had always been there with him. Faithful. Permanent._

_They had marked what Vergil had become, and what V had come to be._

_And right then, while floating in that abyss without seeing, or hearing, or even feeling his body, V only felt a strange sensation peace while being surrounded by them._

_At that moment there was no pain, no fear, no worries._

_There was nothing but silence._

_A silence V felt welcoming, since it quietened down that malicious whisper that warned him that his time was beginning to run out._

_There, in that eternal nothingness, he was safe. He didn’t need to worry about anything._

_He didn't have to regret being so pathetically weak that the chances of reaching the finishing line were scarce._

_He wasn't forced to fight against that other half who had unfairly taken the strength that should have been equally divided among the two._

_He could forget that, in case of failing, he would be condemned to coexist with those three companions he had always claimed to accept out of choice._

_He didn't need to be scared about surviving and becoming whole once again just to discover that Nero’s feelings wouldn’t remain the same._

 

When that last thought came to him, a sound of shattered crystal invaded that silence that protected V from being drown by his own thoughts.

Slowly, V opened his eyes to discover that the thick darkness surrounding him was slowly fading, conforming a place. A room. And then, a face showing an expression half concern and half relief.

“V?”

Nero’s expectant voice was the last push V needed to wake up completely.

He blinked a couple of times, trying to remember where he was and what had happened, but Nero suddenly raising him up to pulling him into a hug made the task of thinking quite impossible.

“Son of a bitch, you scared me back there.”

The light temblor that appeared in Nero’s voice made V remember all at once: the demons that seemed to be fixated exclusively on him, he invoking Nightmare in order to quickly take care of them, and finally he falling into unconsciousness.

V was still processing everything when his familiars appeared in the room as well.

“Jeez, kid, I know you are happy to have your boyfriend back but give him some space to breathe!”

When hearing Griffon’s reproachful comment Nero separated from V.

“Sorry”, Nero’s blue eyes scanned his face rapidly, “how are you feeling?”

“A little tired”, V pinched the bridge of his nose, missing the way Nero frowned, a little surprised by the answer, “what time it is?”

“4 p.m.”

“So I have been unconscious for two hours?”

“...Two days.”

V froze when hearing Nero’s answer. He opened his eyes and raised his face to look at the devil hunter again in disbelief.

“What?”

His voice came out much thinner than it should, but he couldn’t do it better with the way his throat had closed up with apprehension. If he had been sleeping for more than 48 hours, it had no sense that he was feeling so fatigued. No sense at all.

“Yep, you’ve been sleeping like a big fat— like a big baby”, Griffon replied with a tone that surely tried to rest importance to the situation but that didn’t help remove the oppressive feeling in V’s lower stomach, “I hope you don’t blame the kid again for being lazy because you have won for sure—”

“The page”, V interrupted Griffon to address Nero, “it has been revealed already?”

“Not yet but it’s about to be readable”, V tried to move but Nero grabbed his arms, “hey hey hey, where do you think you're going?”

Nero’s physical strength had always surpassed his in that form. It had always been like that, and V had come to accept it. But still, the fact that he tried to move and Nero’s hands kept him there with absolute zero effort was more frustrating than ever.

“Nero, should I remind you we only have two days until Urizen becomes unstoppable?”

Nero leaned forward until his nose was brushing against V.

“Yeah, but I remind you that you haven’t eaten anything in two damn days, so you’re not leaving this bed until you have some food in your system”, V’s protest was interrupted by a quick but firm kiss, “so stay here and wait while I prepare you something. And _don’t_ move or Shadow will tie you up against the bed.”

Usually V needed Griffon’s help to understand Shadow, but this time when the panther growled at Nero’s words the invoker felt that his familiar was going to follow Nero’s threat to the letter.

After deciding that ending ridiculously imprisoned against that bed would be the last straw to his current self-esteem, V rearranged the pillow to lean against them and spent the following half-an-hour there, pretending to read his book while pushing away all the dark thoughts that tried to slip in his mind non-stop. Thoughts about being wasting too much precious time because of him; about being delaying the unavoidable because, in his state, there was no way he could put up a decent fight; about the necessity of giving up because fate was already written and there was nothing V could do to change it.

V felt relieved when the door opened again and Nero appeared carrying a big bowl of oatmeal, putting a momentary stop to all that inner noise that threatened to provoke him a piercing headache.

“You better eat half of it at least”, Nero threatened when seeing V looking at the bowl with a face that said ‘ _I will be unable to finish this_ ’, “you don’t want to end even more anemic, do you?”

V snorted softly to Nero’s teasing, blowing on the spoon before trying the oatmeal, which was quite tasty despite its simple appearance.

“I'm sure that, as usual, you won't allow any food to go to waste.”

Griffon surprised him by huffing.

“Well, believe it or not, the kid has barely eaten these two days.”

V frowned, looking at Nero with surprise.

“Why? Have you been sick too?”

Nero stared at him for a couple of seconds before talking with a tone that was calling him ‘dumb’ without actually doing it.

“Yeah. Worried sick.”

V gulped, finally understanding what Nero meant.

“I see”, he rapidly averted his eyes to the oatmeal with the excuse of stirring it, wanting to avoid Nero’s inquisitive look as much as possible, “well, you can see there was no need for it.”

V realized he should have probably avoided to use those last words when feeling tension emanating from Nero’s body. However, against all odds, Nero simply exhaled a sigh and muttered something unintelligible that V couldn’t quite catch.

No one talked much after that. While V had his meal, Nero made the most of that time to sit on the chair and clean his weapons. V’s familiars remained in the room too, making them company with the excuse of being keeping watch through the window.

After several minutes had passed, Nero had already finished with his pistol and V was in the process of leaving the half empty bowl on the nightstand when Griffon broke the silence.

“So, I think Shadow and I will take a small rest”, V frowned slightly not only for the sudden words, but also for the excess of casualness that Griffon’s tone carried, “warn us if you need something.”

V blinked, feeling quite confused by his familiar’s sudden behavior. After all his tattoos covered his body again, V turned his attention towards Nero to ask him if something had happened in his absence.

He didn’t get to formulate his question, the words stuck in his tongue when seeing the uncharacteristic serious expression the devil hunter was displaying while standing up from the chair. 

The invoker’s body tensed when Nero approached to sit on the side of the bed, with his body a little turned in order to be facing him.

Nero’s eyes dug on him again, looking more determined and inquisitive than ever, and after exhaling a short, slightly nervous sigh, the boy talked.

“Okay, V…”

The invoker suppressed a gulp, hoping that the words Nero was planning to spell weren’t the ones he was fearing to hear.

 

“...we need to talk.”

 

They were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I guess it's not a spoiler to say that the conversation won't go too smoothly, right? ^^U  
> Two more chapters for the ending of the first part!!


	29. (June 13) - Fated not to last

**_June 13 - 4:46 p.m._ **

During the silence that fell in the room after Nero’s words, V sustained the devil hunter’s gaze without blinking.

He also focused all his efforts not to tense even one bit. If he did, Nero would surely notice, since the devil hunter knew his body well enough by then to detect such a change on it.

Once he was sure that his voice was going to sound perfectly neutral, V frowned with the necessary amount of confusion and nodded.

“Alright. About what?”

V decided not to cut Nero off directly. After all, perhaps the devil hunter was simply going to comment something about the manuscript. Or about the demons prowling the place. Or about something even more banal. He was the one overthinking, assuming that the topic Nero was going to bring would be a problematic one, but he could be mistaken. He _hoped_ to be mistaken, and that the question Nero formulated ended being an innocent one.

“About what’s happening to you.”

V suppressed the urge of clicking his tongue with impatience. The prospect of the imminent talk didn’t look very promising, but the invoker decided to wait a little. The trip had allowed him to gain some extra patience and surely this was the perfect time to make use of it.

“Well, if you are referring to my recent faint, surely invoking Nightmare too often had a drowning effect in my body that I had not foreseen, but I feel quite better now. So, as I’ve already told you, there is no reason to worry.”

V’s serene tone didn’t change during the whole answer until the last sentence. At that moment, a hint of warn escaped him without noticing, because that’s what his answer actually was: a warning.

He was giving Nero a last chance of retreating from a conversation that wouldn’t end well. The same as him, Nero had learned patience along the journey, and also to think twice before acting, so part of V hoped that the boy did apply such gained knowledge wisely.

But of course, V should have known that retreating from a battle without putting up a decent fight wasn’t Nero’s style. It would never be.

“You sure? Because that’s not what I got from your familiars.”

If V had been in his plein faculties, he would have surely been able to keep his face neutral despite the shock Nero’s words produced in him. Unfortunately, fatigue was still infecting him, making more difficult to fully control his reactions as well as he would like. So, he couldn’t prevent his eyes from opening more for an instant, neither to completely remove his irritation from his tone when spelling the next words.

“I doubt they have told you anything, because there’s _nothing_ to tell.”

For second time, Nero didn’t feel taken aback by this new, more direct warning, his conviction managing to grow even more.

“You right. They didn’t want to betray your trust, so they didn’t say much. But the fact that your bird, who _never_ shuts up, decided to keep silent proves that there’s something to worry. And that there’s something else in all this”, Nero’s eyes gained intensity, “something that links Urizen to you.”

This time, V didn’t even bother to prevent his teeth from gritting.

He didn’t know how Nero had reached such an accurate conclusion, if it had been Griffon’s fault or simply the boy was more intelligent than he gave him credit for, but it didn’t matter at the moment. The only thing V wanted was to drop the topic, no matter how.

“Nero, I’m not going to repeat myself again”, V crossed his arms in front of his chest without realizing, the serenity of his tone beginning to sound quite fake, “I’m _fine_. Not at my fullest, that’s true, but my blackout was produced by an improper use of my power: that’s all. So, whatever theories you have come up with, you can forget all of them.”

“Sorry, but I can’t do that”, Nero’s voice showed the boy was at the brink of losing his patience as well, “I have a really good memory, you know? I remember it was you the one who knew who the hell Urizen was when none of us had a fucking clue, and you yourself said his presence in Red Grave was your fault.”

V crossed his arms more tightly, suppressing the urge to gulp.

He didn’t know when he had let such an information slip. It must have been in one of the several times during which he lowered his walls around Nero, saying more than he should, but he didn’t remember the exact moment. And the fact that Nero did only served to make his irritation grow.

“You must have misinterpreted me then.”

His cutting reply made Nero snort.

“No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did”, V raised his tone without realizing, effectively shutting Nero up with the coldness of his next words, “and if your memory was as good as you boast, I wouldn’t need to remind you that _you_ accepted not having to know everything about me. That _you_ accepted to respect my privacy”, V leaned his chin forward to give more emphasis to his next words, “Were you lying back then, Nero? Because if that’s the case, perhaps I will be forced to doubt the veracity of _all_ your words from that day.”

Nero’s body stiffened, together with his prominent jaw.

“That’s playing dirty, V.”

It was. Speaking as if he had any doubts about Nero’s feelings when it was plein evident how the boy felt about him was low. V knew it, but continued doing so.

Dealing with Nero being angry for his lack of answers was something he could do, something he could manage.

Dealing with Nero learning about everything... _that_ was a different matter.

“And trying to satiate your excessive need for answers behind my back is not?”

“Excessive—”, Nero snorted an incredulous laugh, “so according to you, wanting to know why you fucking dropped dead all of sudden is ‘excessive’?”

“Yes, when the motive is that you are getting overly concerned over a fainting.”

“V, you didn’t faint: you fell into a damn coma. I fucking know the difference.”

“So now your abilities also include such a level of medical expertise? I’m impressed.”

For the way Nero’s hands turned into fists, V knew that in case of having been in good condition perhaps the devil hunter would have punched him.

But he wasn’t, so Nero simply took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and talked after opening them again with a tone that still showed that the boy was close to lose his temper.

“Listen, V, I don’t—”, Nero stopped and tried again, “since the beginning, I have never pressed you with anything—”

“And you were doing wonderfully up till then, Nero”, his dismissive interruption provoked the desired effect in Nero, whose attempt of remaining calm was close to be shattered for the way his jaw clenched again, “so I would strongly suggest to keep doing the same.”

“And I fucking would if you weren’t being an asshole since this damn conversation started.”

“Well, perhaps your distrustful behavior has something to do with my attitude.”

“What the— I _do_ trust you!

“Do you? Really?”

“I DO, but you—”

“Because allow me to tell you you’re doing quite a poor job.”

“THAT’S BECAUSE I KNOW YOU ARE LYING!”

V didn’t blink when Nero brusquely stood up and kicked the nightstand with such anger that this one was almost pulverized. The crashing sound of the bowl breaking against the floor resounded in the room, together with Nero’s heavy breathing while staring at V from above.

The devil hunter looked like a bull about to lunge against his prey, but V wasn’t the least concerned about the display, and was sure to make it show.

He was about to coldly demand Nero to sit down again, not liking to have to raise his eyes during a conversation, when Nero continued, and the frustration present in the boy’s voice was so big that V almost felt guilty for being acting in such a way on purpose. Almost.

“I’ve tried, V. I’ve _always_ tried not to ask too many questions because I know you don’t want to talk about certain stuff. That’s why I never asked what the hell happened in Mallet. Or why you were forced to make a contract with your familiars. Or why the hell you blamed yourself when it was Urizen’s fault what happened in Pitchbale and all those other cities. Shit, I didn’t even ask why the hell you talk to your mother in dreams and you always seem about to fucking cry in your sleep when that happens.”

V froze when hearing that last bit, getting paler because _that_ was a new fact he hadn't been aware of up till that instant.

“So, if at this point, with all we’ve been through together, you can’t even share what the hell is wrong with you and Urizen maybe it’s _you_ the one in having a fucking problem of trust—”

V had stopped listening after Nero mentioned his mother, so he noticed too late that Nero had suddenly stopped talking, as if he had been shocked by something.

That was when V felt the dampness in his cheeks, product of the tears that had rolled down his eyes without him being aware of it.

V rapidly reached with the back of his hand to dry his face, mortification and embarrassment filling him for having _cried_ at such an extremely vague mention of his mother, without being able to do anything to stop it. A scary reminder of how fast the control of his body was escaping from him.

Well. Perhaps that voice that whispered in his dreams he was discarded for a reason hadn’t been as mistaken as he wanted to believe.

“V…”, the invoker gritted his teeth in self-disgust when Nero’s anger was nowhere to be found anymore, having been replaced by guilt and concern, “V, I…”

“ _Don’t_ ”, his snarled order made Nero remain silent again, “don’t say another word. Don’t make a single more question.”

“Listen, V—”

“No, Nero, _you_ listen”, V buried his harsh gaze on the devil hunter and continued talking (almost snarling) the next words, “in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not like your former fiancée. If you wanted something simple, you should have remained by that woman’s side, but you decided not to, and I warned you about it. When you came back and expressed your wish to be with me, I warned you about not knowing what you were asking for, about not knowing where you were getting yourself into, but you didn’t listen to me. You stubbornly insisted you knew what you were doing. You claimed you knew enough about me, even after I stated you didn’t. And despite my reluctance, I decided to trust you. I decided to believe that you would accept the conditions that being with me carried.”

While he spoke, Nero remained unexpectedly silent, attentive to each one of his words. V took a moment to recover his breath and then continued.

“So, if you really meant what you said back then, from this very instant you will stop making questions; you will stop trying to know more about something that doesn’t concern you; you will stop demanding me to speak about things I’m not willing to share; and you will stop bringing the topic of my condition _ever_ again. Because if you do…”, V’s voice was barely a hiss by then, but the threat in it couldn’t be clearer, “...we will go separate ways. And I’m not referring _just_ to the mission.”

Nero’s eyes showed momentary panic at that last part, indicating V the devil hunter had understood the implications of his words.

The thick silence that fell between them was breaking by the sound of the phone ringing on the first floor, but Nero didn’t make any attempt of leaving the room to take the call. His eyes were still buried on V, confused, concerned. As if for once he was having difficulties to talk instead of blurting out the first thing that came to his mind.

At the end, it was V the one who intervened again after the third ignored ring, averting his eyes while crossing his arms again.

“You should attend it. It could be important.”

For a moment V thought Nero was going to ignore his suggestion, but eventually the boy abandoned the room, frowning with a puzzled expression.

V was unable to fully understand the conversation taking place in the lower floor, but words like ‘materials’, ‘weapons’ and ‘arms’ reached his ears, so he guessed the devil hunter was talking to that woman who had provided Nero with his prosthetic arm.

The conversation couldn’t last more than some minutes, and when V stopped hearing Nero, he feared for a moment that the boy decided to come back to try to resume a conversation V already wanted dead.

Fortunately, Nero had seemed to understand his desire to be left alone, and soon enough V heard the door of Devil May Cry opening and closing, indicating Nero had left to either patrol or release his clear frustration with the demons that were unlucky enough to stand in his way.

Once he was alone again, and with the tension of the conversation surely not having been the best for his current state, V began to feel dizzy. He lied against the pillows and closed his eyes, in an attempt that his head stopped spinning. When accepting there was nothing to be done to improve how he was feeling, he clicked his tongue and uncrossed his right arm to snap his fingers, letting the other arm placed across his chest.

The moment he felt Griffon and Shadow appear he didn’t give the bird the opportunity to speak, cutting whatever he was going to say with a definite tone.

“From now on, you both have completely forbidden to interact with Nero in any way unless I am present.”

Since Griffon didn’t talk immediately, V deduced his familiars had interchanged a confused glance.

“O - kay...By basing on the state of that poor nightstand, I guess that your conversation with the boy didn’t go too smoothly?”

V slowly opened his eyes and looked at Griffon, making the bird flap his wings faster in nervousness because of his accusing glare.

“No, because apparently _someone_ ran his mouth too much.”

“ _What_?! Hey, hey, V, I don’t know what that boy told you, but I swear I didn’t say a single thing! Right, Shadow?”

“Perhaps not”, V completely ignored the panther when this one backed his companion up by nodding, “but for sure if you two had been more convincing, he wouldn’t have deduced there was something that ties me with Urizen.”

“But V, at this point, what if he knows?”, V frowned, the unspoken ‘ _What?_ ’ making Griffon continue, “I mean, you're together already and everything is okay between you two, right? So what's the problem with the kid finally learning about the truth?”

A quiet laugh lacking all humor escaped him before talking with sarcasm.

“None at all. I’m sure Nero will react wonderfully when learning I was the one in leaving him half-dead when recovering Yamato.”

“But you were the one half-dead at that moment! It was Vergil’s only chance to survive, and if you explain it to the kid, I’m sure he will understand. He talks big, but deep inside he is a big softie.”

“And that’s precisely the problem”, V snapped, “he is too well natured. That was the reason why our journey was about to end before even starting. Because the idea of letting strangers die without trying to do something about it was unthinkable for him”, V exhaled a new shallow laugh and averted his eyes to the side, “so now imagine what his reaction would be if he learnt all what Vergil did in the past.”

He felt his familiar’s dumbfounded stare in him.

“And you realize that _now_?”, the bird exhaled an incredulous laugh, “but V, what the hell do you think it’s gonna happen if you manage to be complete again? Do you think the boy won’t want to know more about you then? It’s only a matter of time that he discovers everything about Vergil! You’re just delaying—”

“—the unavoidable. I know already, Griffon. I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Then what’s stopping you? Do you think he won’t understand?”

“I _know_ he won’t.”

“Look, V, you didn’t see him yesterday. He was deadly worried about you. He was ready to go kill Urizen on his own if that meant bringing you back. I may not like the kid much because he is loud, and rude, and calls me 'chicken' all the time, but it’s evident he loves you and that will accept you no matter what!”

“Perhaps, but right now I’m not strong enough to stand what would happen if he doesn’t.”

V hated the bitterness that tinged his voice, since it made it sound more strained. Almost in the verge of breaking.

“V…”

When Griffon muttered his name with defeated fondness, V clenched his jaw to try to remove the lump wanting to form in his throat. He didn’t manage, because at that moment Shadow climbed on the bed to lie next to him, leaning his head on his lap as a support that, at that moment, only served to make him feel even more vulnerable.

“God, you may look different, but you’re the same bundle of insecurities of back then, aren’t you?”

V glared at the bird again, but this one simply cawed a laugh and posed on the end of the bed. Certainly, having been forced to serve under Mundus together had its disadvantages.

“Well, just for the record, I still think that telling the truth would be for the best, but you’re the boss. So, if you want us to keep quiet, that’s what we’ll do. Even if it means to complicate this whole mess even more.”

Shadow growled from his lap at that moment, agreeing with Griffon’s defeated words. V nodded once, settled his hand on Shadow’s head, and allowed his eyes to close again, feeling certain that no matter how disobedient their familiars could be sometimes, they would keep their word, and would follow his lead to the last consequences.

And given all the uncertainty surrounding V at that moment, such unbreakable loyalty was quite a relief.

* * *

V didn’t realize he had fallen asleep again until he was startled by the door of the office closing brusquely, announcing Nero was back again.

His familiars had already come back to him, probably a while ago already, and although he had no way to know what the exact time was, it had to be late because the whole room was pitch black.

When hearing Nero’s steps coming from the stairs V sank more on the bed to be lying on his side instead of propped up by the pillows. He had barely closed his eyes when Nero’s steps got closer, announcing the devil hunter’s presence inside the bedroom.

“You awake?”

V’s heart skipped a beat at the muttered question, but decided to remain silent, pretending to be asleep. After some moments, Nero exhaled a soft sigh but didn’t say anything, the sound of clothes being discarded that followed letting V know the boy was undressing to go to sleep.

The invoker managed to keep immobile when the bed creaked a little under Nero’s weight, and also when the devil hunter got closer enough so that he could feel the boy’s naked chest pressing against his back and his breathing against the back of his head.

“It was Nico the one who called. She asked me to gather some stuff. I’ll be meeting with her tomorrow.”

V remained silent, keeping with the farce of being sleeping even if he knew that Nero probably knew that he was awake.

“I have also checked the manuscript. It was almost completely revealed. I think that you will be able to read it by now.”

Still, V didn’t spell a word, obtaining a resigned sigh from the devil hunter.

For a moment he thought that Nero would go to sleep. That he would stop talking.

As it usually happened with Nero, V's prediction failed, and he was about to shiver when feeling Nero’s human arm enclosing around his waist.

“I’m sorry, V. I’m sorry I made you angry, but when you fainted the other day I…”, Nero had to gulp to be able to continue, “...for a moment I thought you were dead. And shit, it fucking scared me, you know?”

V gulped too all the subtly he could. He hesitated, thinking if he should stop faking, but Nero talking again quickly put an end to his debate.

“Before, you said whatever happens to you doesn’t concern me, but that’s not true. Because we’re together in this. Fuck, _we are_ together, so you can’t blame me for wanting to know what’s wrong with you. And I know there is something wrong, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

V tensed, waiting with his breath held at what Nero was going to do next because in case he wanted another discussion, he would be forced to invoke his familiars. He was too tired to stand another round, even a verbal one.

He didn’t need to take such drastic measures, relief invading him when Nero talked with a resigned tone.

“But okay, V. You win. Damn, it pisses me off that you always have to win, but if you don’t want me to talk about this again, I won’t. I’ll trust you, okay? We’ll do things your way, as usual. But in exchange, please, V…”

V’s heart skipped a beat when Nero dragged him closer until they were flushed together and he could feel Nero’s lips almost brushing against his ear.

“...please, don’t be an idiot. You don’t have to deal with whatever you’re dealing alone. Not anymore. You can count on me. You _always_ can count on me, no matter for what, so do it, damnit”, Nero kissed the back of his head with unusual softness, “I love you, V. And whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

V bit his lower lip when this one stupidly trembled at that last confession, feeling moved against his will by Nero’s sincere words.

Part of him wanted to listen to Nero. Part of him wanted to lean on the boy, to share his fears, to show him all his demons.

But he couldn’t. He was unable to do so.

For someone like Vergil, who had never allowed himself to trust in anyone but himself, V had already given everything he could give. He had already trusted Nero with everything he could trust, and he had already reached his limit. The burden that remained, as heavy as it was, it was his and his alone to bear.

As he had confessed to his familiars before, as good as Nero’s predisposition was, as sincere as Nero was, V hadn’t a guarantee of what the boy’s reaction was going to be in case of learning everything, and V couldn’t take the risk of Nero leaving. Of Nero abandoning him.

In his current state, he would be unable to withstand such a blow. He was practically living on borrowed time by then, and if his body wasn’t strong enough, at least his mind and heart had to be.

So, he remained silent, waiting for Nero’s breathing to tell him the boy was asleep before settling his own hand against Nero’s arm, putting himself more comfortable in Nero’s embrace.

After all, even if they succeeded, even if he finally became complete again as he had always wanted, V was painfully aware that it could very much be the last night he and Nero could lie together in such a way, so he better enjoy the boy’s warm presence as long as it was there.

Even if, ultimately, it was fated not to last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it had been a while since I wrote an angsty chapter ^^U  
> For the ones who may be forced to remain at home, hope the read make your wait a little more enjoyable <3 <3  
> One chapter to go and the second part with the canon starts!


	30. Epilogue

**_June 14 - 7:11 p.m._ **

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh when finally pinpointing Nico’s van parked in front of an old, abandoned building that had seen better days. He approached the vehicle, weapons in hand, ready in case a new group of empusas and cainas tried to ambush him. The presence of demons in Red Grave had multiplied since the previous day, and Nero had barely stopped fighting since he left Devil May Cry.

He really hoped that V wasn’t lying when saying he would remain inside the office the whole day. Their last argument had made clear that expressing aloud his concern for V was something to avoid, at least if he wanted that their relationship didn’t end at stake. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep worrying, like that morning when he woke up to an empty bed. 

For an instant, the fear of V having left without warning had been real, and his heart hadn’t normalized until he climbed down the stairs and found V sitting at Dante’s desk, focused on translating the manuscript. The invoker had agreed on calling him when he finished, so until that happened he had to stick with Nico, since the phone in the van was their only way to keep in touch with V. 

Definitely, when that mission finished he would really consider the option of getting himself a mobile. He didn’t like technological stuff too much, and it would be a pain in the ass to get used to it, but it would make things easier from the on. At that point, having to depend on public phone booths to communicate with others was beginning to be too old-fashioned even for him.

Nero frowned when he was finally in front of the van, not seeing Nico in the driver seat. He knocked at the door of the vehicle, the fingers of his opposite hand ready to pull the trigger in case it was necessary. His tension vanished when hearing a cheery _‘Coming~!_ ’ sounding from inside.

In a matter of seconds the lateral door of the van had opened to reveal the craftswoman, smiling widely at him from above.

“Yo! It’s been a while since last time I saw your ass-face.”

Nero rolled his eyes at the greeting, entering when Nico stepped aside. 

“Nice to see you too”, he ironically said, following the woman further inside towards her workspace. Nico situated behind the table and snapped her hands against the surface with energy, balancing her body back and forward with her brown eyes shining with anticipation.

“So? Did ya bring everything?”

Nero sighed with patience and dropped his heavy backpack on the table in front of the eager woman.

“Check it for yourself”, he crossed his arms, observing Nico as this one rummaged through the backpack, humming and talking to herself while extracting the materials Nero had gathered the previous day and that same morning.

“Well, well, great job, errand boy! I think it’s everything I asked for.”

“Yeah, you can bet it is. But seriously, what the hell did you need a caina’s teeth for?”

“Sorry, but a master never reveals her tricks”, she winked at him mysteriously, and frowned when Nero looked at her skeptically, “hey, have a little of faith! I made you a freaking awesome arm, didn’t I? So if I say I need a caina’s teeth is because I need a caina’s teeth, ‘kay?”

Nero snorted softly, but he was smiling while turning his arm to examine it.

“I have to admit this shit wasn’t half bad”, he proceeded to remove his arm, missing Nico glaring at him due to his poor compliment, “you think you can take a look at it? I think it’s starting to rust—”

Nico’s table trembled when this one snapped a perfect copy of Overture against the surface with a loud thump.

“Sure I could, buuut maybe it would be better if you simply changed it for its new, fresh version”, Nico smiled proudly while placing her hands on her hips, “this puppy has leveled up and has a more potent battery now. Now you can attack multiple enemies with it, but try not to abuse it so that it doesn’t explode from overheat.”

Nero tried the new version of Overture on. It adjusted more easily and it was lighter to wear, and the sensibility was better too.

“Cool”, Nero’s eyes shifted to Nico again, “I guess this won’t be free, right?”

Nico hummed to herself, pretending to think deeply before surprising him with a nod.

“Well, I feel generous today, so this is on the house. _But_ just this one. This gal has to put food on the table, you know?”

Nero was about to point out she could eat in a top restaurant each damn day with her exorbitant prices when she exhaled a longing sigh.

“Speaking of which _damn_ : I miss Kyrie’s food so much”, Nero instantly tensed at the mention of his ex-girlfriend, a reaction that Nico seemed to misinterpret, “don’t get me wrong: I miss her too, I’m not that materialist. But her cooking is just from heaven. Hell, she can very much be from heaven. Have I ever said you’re a lucky bastard for having her by your side?”

Nero suppressed a gulp, reaching up with his gloved hand to press it against the necklace he had decided to wear again not to risk to lose it. Nico’s joking tone proved beyond doubt that the woman didn’t know about his breakup with Kyrie yet, and he decided to let it be.

He and V needed Nico’s help after all, and he wasn’t sure how the woman would react when learning she had left Kyrie for V. 

Probably not well. _Surely_ not well. 

So, for the time being, it was better to wait until their mission was over to let her know.

“Yeah, you have. More than once”, he simply answered, signaling at the door of the van with his head while turning his mechanical hand into a fist, “I’m gonna play with this puppy. Try not to waste _all_ the materials, okay?”

“And _you_ try not to break the puppy”, he heard Nico sigh with patience behind him while examining his former arm, “shit, what the hell did you do to this poor thing?”

She was still complaining about his ‘improper use of her babies’ when Nero stepped outside the vehicle. A group of demons were forming at the end of the street again. Nero moved his head from one side to the other so that it cracked, rolled his shoulders, and got his new arm ready while approaching them to finish them off as soon as possible.

At the end, circumstances had made impossible to face Urizen before the time limit, and Nero had the feeling that he and V would need to save as much energies as possible if they wanted to defeat that bastard once and for all, before it was too late.

* * *

The coffee V had prepared himself a while ago had long turned cold, concretely since the precise moment in which he had come across a particular word in the old manuscript.

 _Qliphoth_. 

During the following two hours V had kept working tirelessly, translating that ancient document with the hope that such a word had been mentioned by passing, only as an allegory which didn’t correspond to the reality waiting ahead. But the more he read, and the more those initially incomprehensible words acquired meaning in front of his eyes, the more certain he was: 

Urizen’s main goal during that entire month had been to fully invoke the Qliphoth, the demonic tree which had existed even before the Underworld itself, and which could grant whoever ingested the fruit that grew from it with unimaginable power.

Sitting in the dark room only illuminated by the desk’s lamp, V exhaled a shallow laugh and reclined against the chair. He leaned his right elbow on the chair’s arm and rubbed his temple, closing his eyes.

“This is worse than we thought.”

The verbal expression of his thoughts caused Griffon and Shadow to manifest in the room. He slowly opened his eyes again, in time to see his familiars interchange a glance before joining him. 

“Did you finish, V?”, Griffon posed on the back of the chair to look at the document from above, while Shadow sat on the floor next to V to simply observe the scene in his usual silence, “did you find something?”

V exhaled a long, tired sigh, hinted a faint smirk, and answered his familiar by reciting some verses that could not suit better the situation they would be forced to face in a matter of hours.

_And it grew both day and night,_

_Till it bore an apple bright,_

_And my foe beheld it shine,_

_and he knew that it was mine_

 

_**End of the First Part** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, the first part of the _Blood is Thicker than Water_ series is over!!
> 
> I won't lie: I'm quite proud for having managed to cover the whole 'missing month' in the game that takes place between the Prologue and Mission 1 :') Again, I'm sorry if the last part of the story felt a little stretched out, but as I've said initially I only had material for around 25 chapters until I decided I wanted to write exactly 30, so that's the reason why the last ones are more plotless, shorter and with smut xD
> 
> Regarding the second part, I estimate it will have around 22-23 chapters: 20 of them correspond to the different missions of the game (with extra scenes of course, since Nero and V will be together during the story of the game), while the last 2-3 will correspond to the happy ending between Nero and Vergil :) I don't think it takes me much to begin posting this second fic, though before that I will update the thief-cop AU :P
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH to all the ones who have read/enjoyed/commented this story and to the ones who have managed to reach this point despite the super slow burn (the worst I've ever written, I swear xD) <3 <3 <3 Hope to see you in the next installement of the series :)


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